Development of the inventory of clinician attitudes about suicide prevention
AI Summary
Developed the ICASP: a 22-item, four-factor measure (Clinician's Approach, Avoidance, Moral Rights, Clinician Comfort) with omega coefficients 0.72 to 0.84.
Sample of 410 mental health providers across United States, Canada and Australia; used exploratory factor analysis and item response theory analyses.
Demonstrates convergent validity with attitudes glorifying suicide and compassion fatigue elements; suitable for supervision, reflective practice and training evaluation.
OBJECTIVES: Mental health providers (MHPs) hold varying attitudes about suicide prevention, and these beliefs can impact personal and client well-being. To date, suicide prevention attitude measures are limited by appropriate population use, poor psychometrics and a lack of theoretical foundation. The present study rectified a measurement gap in the literature by articulating initial development of the Inventory of Clinician Attitudes about Suicide Prevention (ICASP).
DESIGN: MHPs (N = 410) across three countries (United States, Canada and Australia) took part in a cross-sectional online survey about suicide prevention competencies.
METHODS: A community-engaged convenience sampling approach was used followed by splitting the sample to perform parallel exploratory factor analysis and item response theory analyses.
RESULTS: Analyses yield a four-factor ICASP with 22 items: (1) Clinician’s Approach (ω = 0.79); (2) Clinician Avoidance (ω = 0.76); (3) Moral Rights (ω = 0.84); and (4) Clinician Comfort (ω = 0.72). Exploratory findings suggest convergent validity via significant, yet modestly sized, correlations with attitudes glorifying suicide and three elements of compassion fatigue (i.e. compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress).
CONCLUSIONS: The ICASP represents a promising tool for measurement of MHP suicide prevention attitudes in clinical supervision, self-reflective practice and training evaluation. Findings support portions of the Dynamic Balance Model of MHP suicide prevention attitudes. Future psychometric research directions are discussed.
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