Psychometric characteristics of Beck's Suicidal Ideation Scale (BSI) in university students of Mexico City.

This article shows the psychometric characteristics of the diagnostic concordance and the internal consistency, according to Beck's Suicide Ideation Scale (BSI), and the identification of the frecuency of the suicide ideation in young adults. It also describes the clinical characteristics of those who present this suicide ideation, according to the BSI criteria from a sample of 122 college students who demanded attention from the Psychiatric Service of the Department of Medical Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental Health of the Medical School at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. This was a transversal ex-post-facto study using a non probabilistic sample procedure. The sample was integrated with 122 students 17 to 25 years old. The results showed suicide ideation in 18.9% of the 122 participants, that is in 23 students, 22 of which were also correctly identified by the BSI scale. As for the factorial structure, the scale had four dimensions just as the original BSI scale has: Sub-scale I. Characteristics of their attitudes toward life and death (5 items), formed by one factor, with an internal consistency of alpha = .90. Subscale II: Characteristics of their thoughts and of their desire to commit suicide (5 items), with two factors and an alpha = .65 coefficient in the first one and alpha = .45 in the second; both were integrated in a single dimension. Sub-scale III: Characteristics of the attempt (4 items) with one factor and an internal consistency of alpha = .61. Sub-scale IV: Update of the suicide attempt (2 items), considered as an indicator, and obtaining a coefficient of alpha = .45. Beck's Suicide Ideation Scale (BSI) does not pretend to predict a suicidal attempt in this sample, but it evaluates the intensity of the suicidal desires among those who applied, indicating the presence of suicide risk in a short term. Therefore, its early detection is important in order to prevent it and provide an adequate treatment.