The Creation and Validation of a Coding Scheme for Suicide Narrative Interviews
Date
2015-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
My senior thesis describes the development and validation of a coding system
for Suicide Narrative Interviews. The purpose of this research is to validate my
coding system so that it can be used to measure changes in suicidal thoughts,
behaviors, and support seeking during times of crises. The sample is derived from an
NIMH funded comparative efficacy trial of Attachment Based Family Therapy
(ABFT) and Non Directive Supportive Therapy (NDST). It is comprised of
participants ages 12-18 that score highly on the Beck Depression Index and the
Suicide Ideation Questionnaire. Three hypotheses were tested. (1) Internal measures
of expectancies, coherence, and support seeking will covariate with each other. (2).
Internal measures will correlate with external measures used in the study, specifically
expectancies will display a negative correlation with attachment anxiety and
attachment avoidance on the Relational Structures Questionnaire, In addition,
expectancies will display a negative correlation with suicide ideation and behavior on
the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. (3) Maternal and peer support seeking
will be associated with lower levels of suicide ideation, but the effect for peers will be
smaller than that of mothers. I found that coherence, expectancies, and support
seeking had significant correlations with each other. Positive expectancies related to
lower maternal attachment avoidance and lower suicide ideation. Finally I found that
support seeking was associated with lower levels of suicide ideation, and that the
effect was stronger for mothers than peers.
Description
Keywords
Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychology