Development and validation of the Redeemer’s University Suicidality Scale

BACKGROUND: The need for a culturally suitable scale for suicidality within the multilingual Nigerian society necessitated this research interest. AIM: The study is a development and validation of the Redeemer’s University Suicidality Scale (RUSS). SETTING: South western Nigeria. METHODS: This comprised of initial generation of items; face and content validity, item refinement and administration of RUSS to 150 university undergraduates, using exploratory factor analysis at the first, second and third stages. In the fourth stage, 184 undergraduates responded to the 20-item RUSS, Suicide Ideation Scale (SIS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Data gathered at this stage were analysed for congruent validity, reliability and norms. RESULTS: The principal component analysis extracted four components from items whose eigenvalues exceeded one. Twenty-one of the 25 items loaded best in the first, two in the second and one on the third component(s). Only items in the first component were retained. Item-total correlation further showed that the values of one item in the first component fell below the very good discrimination and was deleted from the scale. The RUSS has a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93. Congruence validity coefficient of r = 0.881 (p < 0.001) and r = 0.605 (p < 0.001) was observed between RUSS and SIS and between RUSS and GHQ-12, respectively. CONCLUSION: The RUSS is gender-sensitive, has acceptable psychometric properties and is recommended as a diagnostic tool for assessing suicidal behaviour in adolescents and adults. CONTRIBUTION: This article contributes to the development of a culture sensitive measure for suicidality.