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Moving Beyond Self‐Report: Implicit Associations about Death/Life Prospectively Predict Suicidal Behavior among Veterans
Author(s) -
Barnes Sean M.,
Bahraini Nazanin H.,
Forster Jeri E.,
StearnsYoder Kelly A.,
Hostetter Trisha A.,
Smith Geoffrey,
Nagamoto Herbert T.,
Nock Matthew K.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/sltb.12265
Subject(s) - implicit association test , psychology , clinical psychology , suicide prevention , predictive validity , association (psychology) , injury prevention , poison control , suicide risk , human factors and ergonomics , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , developmental psychology , psychotherapist
Reliance on self‐report limits clinicians' ability to accurately predict suicidal behavior. In this study the predictive validity of an objective measure, the death/suicide Implicit Association Test (d/s IAT ), was tested among psychiatrically hospitalized veterans. Following acute stabilization, 176 participants completed the d/s IAT and traditional suicide risk assessments. Participants had similar d/s IAT scores regardless of whether they had recently attempted suicide. However, d/s IAT scores significantly predicted suicide attempts during the 6‐month follow‐up above and beyond other known risk factors for suicidal behavior ( OR = 1.89; 95% CI : 1.15–3.12; based on 1 SD increase). The d/sIAT may augment the accuracy of suicide risk assessment.