ournal o Psychoeducal i’onal Assessmen I

1992, 3, 298-301

Reynolds, W. M. (1987 a, 1988). Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire. Odessa, FL:

Psychologial Assessment Resources.
Over the last 5 to 6 years, Reynolds and his associates (Klosterman-Fields, 1985;
Reynolds & Graves, 1987) have been publishing their work on the Suicidal Idea-
tion Questionnaire (SIQ). There are two forms of the SIQ, a 30-item high school
form for grades 10 to 12 (SIQ: Form HS; Reynolds, 1987b), and a 15-item junior
high school form for grades 7 to 9 (SIQ-QR: Form HS; Reynolds, 1987c) Reynolds
(1988) suggests that these questionnaires can be useful either for screening or as
an adjunct to help guide an assessment interview.
The questionnaire is very much in the Beck tradition of cognitive orientations,
e.g., Beck’s Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 197S). Each
item on the SIQ begins with “I thought .. ,” “I wondered ... ,” “I wished . ,”
and the respondent is asked to choose along a 7-point continuum that assesses the
frequency of that particular thought from “Almost every day” to “I never had this
thought.”
The instruments attempt to tap specific sucidal thoughts and the frequency of
those thoughts over a 1-month period. The forms are structured so that they can
be completed by the client, or the clinician could read to the client and score the
results. When used as a screening instrument, Reynolds (1986) suggests that the
instru- ment be administered in groups no larger than a classroom in size, toward the
begin- ning of the week, and at the beginning of the school day. The screening
should take place on a day in which there are no academic special events, e. g. ,
school- wide achievement testing, or special social events, e. g. , an important
football game,
that could influence the short-term emotional status of students.
The screening must be implemented by a coordinator trained as a mental health
professional who also has received appropriate training in the use of psychological
tests. An excellent outline of this process can be found in the SIQ manual.
SCORING AND INTERPRETATION
Plastic scoring templates that include critical item identification are available from
the publisher. Scores and items can be used in four basic ways: total score, cut-off
scores, critical item review, or clinical perusal of individual items. Reynolds (1987a,
1988) provides scores (raw scores and conversions to percentile ranks based on
N -- 890 for SIQ and N —- 1,290 for the SIQ-QR) that allow for a single cut-off
score for an at-risk population or multiple cut-off scores with different evaluation
or intervention procedures for different scores.
Cut-off scores for both SIQ and SIQ-QR are provided in the manual based on
the norming data and clinical research data (Spririto, 1987, as reported in Reynolds,
1988). Reynolds states:
Although not a diagnostic or predictive measure, the SIQ provides valuable
clinical information on suicidal thoughts of adolescents. A cutoff score may
be used to judge the severity of suicidal thoughts. An adolescent who scores
at or above 41 on the SIQ or at or above 31 on the SIQ-,JR should be referred
for further evaluation of potentially significant psychopathology and suicide
risk (Reynolds, 1988, pp. 10-11).

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TEST REVIEWS 299

Reynolds reports eight critical items on the SIQ and six on the SIQ-JR. He con-
siders them critical because they tap into actual thoughts and plans for suicide.
He suggests that when these items are answered either “Couple of times a week”
or “Almost every day,” evidence of a critical level of danger exists. Further, if three
or more of the eight StQ critical items or two or more of the six SIQ-JA critical
items are chosen, the respondent should be considered at serious risk and receive
further evaluation.
When further evaluations or interventions are to be considered, response pat-
terns or personalizations or changes made to the questions may be clinically useful.
Also offered are three possible ways of assessing the questionnaire’s validity for an
individual. First is total number of items completed. Reynolds suggests that 27 of
30 items for the SIQ and 13 of the 15 items for the SIQ-QR should be completed
to consider the protocol a valid representation. Second is checking for unusal pat-
terns of responses, primarily when all questions have the same reply. Third is ex-
amining for pairs of items that should be answered in different directions. Incon-
sistencies or over-consistencies in response can come about from a variety of
sources,
e. g. , reading problems, oppositional behavior, but all probably should be followed
up with a student interview so that the error is on the side of caution.
It also should be noted that a mail-in computer service is provided by the publisher.
Scoring and summary data are provided.

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Standardization Sample
More than 6,500 adolescents were tested in the development of the SIQ in-
struments. Of these, 2, 180 were used for norming purposes with 890 students from
grades ten through twelve for the SIQ and 1,290 students from grades seven through
nine for the SIQ-JR. Males (49.6 % of SIQ sample; 49. 5 % of SIQ-QR sample) and
females (50. 4 % of SIQ sample; 50. 5 % of SIQ-JR sample) were distributed
evenly. The SIQ-JR (grades seven through nine) was distributed fairly evenly. The
SIQ (grades ten through twelve) was normed slightly more heavily on tenth-graders;
tenth-graders comprised about 44.9 No of the sample, eleventh-graders comprised
about 25. 2 % , and twelfth-graders about 28.4 % . However, because percentile
norms are aggregated according to sex and grades, differences can be taken into
account. In terms of data on minority students, enough data were collected in the
norm- ing sample on African-American students to ascertain no significant main
effects for race in a three-way analysis of variance of SIQ scores by race, gender,
and grade.
Data on other minority groups were insufficient to warrant any further statistical
analyses.

Reliability
The internal consistency reliability of the instruments was estimated using Cron-
bach’s (1951) alpha coefficient. This was done across development samples for sub-
samples by age and sex. The coefficients by grade were high and ranged from a
low of .932 for seventh-graders to a high of .974 for seniors. Standard errors of
measurement ranged from 3.60 for seniors to 4.69 for tenth-graders. When coeffi-
cients by grade and gender were completed the values remained similarly high,
with a low of . 917 for seventh-grade males to a high of .978 for senior females.
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REVIEWS

Standard errors of measurement by gender ranged from 3.55 for ninth-grade males
to 5. 27 for eleventh-grade females. Item-to-total scale correlations also support the
homogeneity of item content; the majority of coefficients computed for total samples
by grades were in the .60s to .80s.
Test-retest reliability is complex for a measure of suicidal ideation because by
its nature it is expected to fluctuate due to external and internal variables and to
do so in a short time. However, over a short period of time, with a large popula-
tion, a moderate degree of stability would be expected. Reynolds (1988) reported
that with a sample size of 801 students across grades, the test-retest reliability over
4 weeks was . 72 with no significant differences between group means for the two
testings.

Validity
Evidence for content and construct validity also is provided by Reynolds (1988).
The use of a theory-based logical hierarchical continuum for suicidal thoughts to
develop the questionnaire, coupled with the high item-to-total correlations reported
above, is supportive of the instrument’s validity.
Other supportive evidence for construct validity is supplied by a variety of studies
reviewed in the manual that focus on correlations between the SIQ and a variety
of measures of depression, hopelessness, anxiety, learned helplessness, and self-
esteem. All reported correlations are in the expected directions and significant at
the § K .001 level.
Some exploratory factor-analytic work on the development samples was reported.
Both the SIQ and the SIQ-QR yielded three factors, but the sets of these factors
were somewhat different. The SIQ analysis yielded a strong first factor that seem-
ingly represents those components of suicidal ideation related to wishes and plans.
The second factor consisted of those items associated with “others” rather than self,
with the highest factor loading on the statement, ‘I thought the only way to be
noticed is to kill myself.’ The third factor seemed to represent morbidity with strong
loadings on “I thought about people dying,” and “I thought about death.” The three
SIQ-QR factors seemed to be related to minor suicidal ideation, specific plans and
desires for suicide, and, again, a morbidity factor.

CONCLUSION
The SIQ and SIQ-QR are thoughtfully constructed, well-developed instruments.
In an area as fraught with difficulties as adolescent suicides, it is heartening to see
an instrument designed to aid in the early identification and, it is hoped, secon-
dary prevention of adolescent suicide.
However, there are some concerns. First, because the instruments are relatively
undisguised, they are open to conscious manipulation as well as the possibility of
unconscious distortion. Second, at this time no measure of current suicide level
can predict temporal changes in suicide risk, and in all honesty, it is unlikely that
such an instrument can be developed. Third, and extremely important, these in-
struments have yet to establish any predictive validity. Fourth, caution is urged
when the tests are used with minority populations, in particular populations other
than African American adolescents.
TEST REVIEWS 301

Given these concerns, this reviewer looks forward to a time when more data are
available on these instruments so that they can aid even more powerfully in the
fight against adolescent suicide.

john M. Davis
Raskob Institute
Oakland, California

REFERENCES
Beck, A. T. , Kovacs, M. , & Weissman, A. Reynolds, W. M. (1987 a). Suicidal Ideation
(1975). Hopeless and suicidal behavior: An fionnaire. Heliminay Monual. Odessa, FL:
overview. ]ournol of the American Medical Psychological Assessment Resources.
Association, 234, 1146-1149. Reynolds, W.M. (1987b). About my Life.
S.I.Q.
Cronbach, L.J. (1951). Coiefticient alpha and form H.S. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assess-
the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, ment Resources.
76, 297-334. Reynolds, W.M. (1987c). About my LJc.’
Klosterman-Fields, S. ]. (1985). Bulimia, binge S.I.Q. —]R Form H.S. Odessa, FL: Psycho-
eating, and suicidal ideotion among colkge women. logical Assessment Resources.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer- Reynolds, W. M. (1988). Suicidal i&ution jars-
sity of Wisconsin, Madison. lionnair«.’ Profcssional Manual. Odessa, FL:
Reynolds, W. M. (1985). A model for screen- Psychological Assessment Resources.
ing and identification of depressed children Reynolds, W. M. , & Graves, A. (1987).
and adolescents in school settings. Prof s- Depression and suicidal Ideation in behavior
sional School Psychology, 1, l l 7-129. disor&red younffsters. Unpublished
manuscript.