Validity of the spanish version of the Herth Hope Index and The Beck Hopelessness Scale in people who have attempted suicide

Abstract

Introduction. Suicide risk assessment remains a handicap for public health policies. Suicide is a major global public health problem. The most predictive behavior of completed suicide is prior suicide attempt. However, studies focused on risk factors have to date proved unsuccessful in reducing death by suicide rates.

Aim. To adapt the Herth Hope Index and the Beck Hopelessness Scale as assessment tools for assessing hope and hopelessness to a Spanish clinical population having carried out a suicide attempt, and assess its structural validity and divergent validity.

Methods. The sample comprised 682 people (62.4% female) aged between 18 and 77 years (M=39; SD=19.1) with previous suicide attempts who were administered the Herth Hope Index (HHI), the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the CDRISC-10 Resilience Scale.

Results. The findings showed that the HHI had a two-dimensional structure that explains 71.2% of the variance, a high internal consistency (α=.97), and adequate divergent validity with hopelessness of -.77. And there are also important differences in hope according to the resilience level of the participants.

Conclusion. The suicide risk should be assessed by preventive and clinical approaches. Hope modulates resilience to suicide attempts and a new short scale adapted to the Spanish clinical population is offered. This short tool is easy to use in emergency department settings and predicts the level of potential vulnerability to more serious future repeated attempts.