Suicide rates within the U.S. military are elevated, necessitating greater efforts to identify those at increased risk. This study utilized a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to examine measurement invariance of the Military Suicide Research Consortium Common Data Elements (CDEs) across current service members (n = 2,015), younger veterans (<35 years; n = 377), and older veterans (≥35 years; n = 1,001). Strong factorial invariance was supported with adequate model fit observed for current service members, younger veterans, and older veterans. The structures of all models were generally comparable with few exceptions. The Military Suicide Research Consortium CDEs demonstrate at least adequate model fit for current military service members and veterans, regardless of age. Thus, the CDEs can be validly used across military and veteran populations. Given similar latent structures, research findings in one group may inform clinical and policy decision making for the other.
AllanN. P.GrosD. F.HomM. A.JoinerT. E.SteckerT. (2016). Suicidal ideation and interpersonal needs: Factor structure of a short version of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire in an at-risk military sample. Psychiatry, 79, 249-261. doi:10.1080/00332747.2016.1185893
2.
BastienC. H.VallieresA.MorinC. M. (2001). Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research. Sleep Medicine, 2, 297-307.
3.
BatterhamP. J.FtanouM.PirkisJ.BrewerJ. L.MackinnonA. J.BeautraisA.. . . ChristensenH. (2015). A systematic review and evaluation of measures for suicidal ideation and behaviors in population-based research. Psychological Assessment, 27, 501-512. doi:10.1037/pas0000053
4.
BeckA. T.BrownG.BerchickR. J.StewartB. L.SteerR. A. (1990). Relationship between hopelessness and ultimate suicide: A replication with psychiatric outpatients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 190-195. doi:10.1176/ajp.147.2.190
5.
BeckA. T.SchuylerD.HermanI. (1974). Development of Suicidal Intent Scales. In BeckA. T.ResnikH. L.LettieriD. J. (Eds.), The prediction of suicide (pp. 45-56). Oxford, England: Charles Press.
6.
BeckA. T.SteerR. A. (1988). Manual for Beck Hopelessness Scale. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
7.
BeckR. W.MorrisJ. B.BeckA. T. (1974). Cross-validation of the Suicidal Intent Scale. Psychological Reports, 34, 445-446. doi:10.2466/pr0.1974.34.2.445
8.
BrennerL. A.HomaifarB. Y.Olson-MaddenJ. H.NagamotoH. T.HugginsJ.SchneiderA. L.. . . CorriganJ. D. (2013). Prevalence and screening of traumatic brain injury among veterans seeking mental health services. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 28, 21-30. doi:10.1097/HTR.0b013e31827df0b5
9.
BrownT. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (1st ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
10.
BryanC. J.GriffithJ. E.PaceB. T.HinksonK.BryanA. O.ClemansT. A.ImelZ. E. (2015). Combat exposure and risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among military personnel and veterans: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 45, 633-649. doi:10.1111/sltb.12163
11.
BushK.KivlahanD. R.McDonellM. B.FihnS. D.BradleyK. A. (1998). The AUDIT alcohol consumption questions (AUDIT-C): An effective brief screening test for problem drinking. Archives of Internal Medicine, 158, 1789-1795. doi:10.1001/archinte.158.16.1789
12.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). WISQARS™: Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html
13.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9, 233-255. doi:10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5
14.
ChiurlizaB.HaganC. R.RogersM. L.PodlogarM. C.HomM. A.StanleyI. H.JoinerT. E. (2016). Implicit measures of suicide risk in a military sample. Assessment. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1073191116676363
15.
CollJ. E.WeissE. L.YarvisJ. S. (2011). No one leaves unchanged: Insights for civilian mental health care professionals into the military experience and culture. Social Work in Health Care, 50, 487-500. doi:10.1080/00981389.2010.528727
16.
de Meneses-GayaC.ZuardiA. W.LoureiroS. R.CrippaJ. A. S. (2009). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): An updated systematic review of psychometric properties. Psychology & Neuroscience, 2, 83-97. doi:10.3922/j.psns.2009.1.12
17.
FranklinK. (2016). Department of Defense Quarterly Suicide Report: Calendar Year 2015 4th Quarter Defense Suicide Prevention Office (DSPO). Washington, DC: Department of Defense.
18.
GutierrezP. M.PeaseJ.MatarazzoB. B.MonteithL. L.HernandezT.OsmanA. (2016). Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire and the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale in military veterans. Psychological Assessment, 28, 1684-1694. doi:10.1037/pas0000310
19.
HogeC. W.CastroC. A. (2012). Preventing suicides in US service members and veterans: Concerns after a decade of war. Journal of the American Medical Association, 308, 671-672. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.9955
20.
HomM. A.ChuC.SchneiderM. E.LimI. C.HirschJ. K.GutierrezP. M.JoinerT. E. (2017). Thwarted belongingness as an explanatory link between insomnia symptoms and suicidal ideation: Findings from three samples of military service members and veterans. Journal of Affective Disorders, 209, 114-123. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2016.11.032
21.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1-55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118
22.
JoinerT. E.GutierrezP. M. (2018). Military Suicide Research Consortium. Retrieved from https://msrc.fsu.edu/
23.
JoinerT. E.PfaffJ. J.AcresJ. G. (2002). A brief screening tool for suicidal symptoms in adolescents and young adults in general health settings: Reliability and validity data from the Australian National General Practice Youth Suicide Prevention Project. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 471-481. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00017-1
24.
KangH. K.BullmanT. A.SmolenskiD. J.SkoppN. A.GahmG. A.RegerM. A. (2015). Suicide risk among 1.3 million veterans who were on active duty during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Annals of Epidemiology, 25, 96-100.
25.
KaplanM. S.McFarlandB. H.HuguetN.ValensteinM. (2012). Suicide risk and precipitating circumstances among young, middle-aged, and older male veterans. American Journal of Public Health, 102(Suppl. 1), S131-S137. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300445
26.
KuehnB. M. (2009). Soldier suicide rates continue to rise: Military, scientists work to stem the tide. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301, 1111-1113. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.342
27.
LeardMannC. A.PowellT. M.SmithT. C.BellM. R.SmithB.BoykoE. J.. . . HogeC. W. (2013). Risk factors associated with suicide in current and former US military personnel. Journal of the American Medical Association, 310, 496-506. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.65164
28.
MeadeA. W.JohnsonE. C.BraddyP. W. (2008). Power and sensitivity of alternative fit indices in tests of measurement invariance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 568-592. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.568
29.
MeadeA. W.LautenschlagerG. J. (2004). A comparison of item response theory and confirmatory factor analytic methodologies for establishing measurement equivalence/invariance. Organizational Research Methods, 7, 361-388. doi:10.1177/1094428104268027
30.
MeredithW.TeresiJ. A. (2006). An essay on measurement and factorial invariance. Medical Care, 44(Suppl. 3), S69-S77. doi:10.1097/01.mlr.0000245438.73837.89
31.
MorinC. M.BellevilleG.BelangerL.IversH. (2011). The Insomnia Severity Index: Psychometric indicators to detect insomnia cases and evaluate treatment response. Sleep, 34, 601-608.
32.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (2015). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
33.
NockM. K.DemingC. A.FullertonC. S.GilmanS. E.GoldenbergM.KesslerR. C.. . . UrsanoR. J. (2013). Suicide among soldiers: A review of psychosocial risk and protective factors. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 76, 97-125. doi:10.1521/psyc.2013.76.2.97
NockM. K.SteinM. B.HeeringaS. G.UrsanoR. J.ColpeL. J.FullertonC. S.. . . KesslerR. C. (2014). Prevalence and correlates of suicidal behavior among soldiers: Results from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). JAMA Psychiatry, 71, 514-522. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.30
Olson-MaddenJ. H.HomaifarB. Y.HostetterT. A.MatarazzoB. B.HugginsJ.ForsterJ. E.. . . BrennerL. A. (2014). Validating the Traumatic Brain Injury-4 screening measure for veterans seeking mental health treatment with psychiatric inpatient and outpatient service utilization data. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 95, 925-929.
38.
OsmanA.BaggeC. L.GutierrezP. M.KonickL. C.KopperB. A.BarriosF. X. (2001). The Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R): Validation with clinical and nonclinical samples. Assessment, 8, 443-454. doi:10.1177/107319110100800409
39.
PruittL. D.SmolenskiD. J.RegerM. A.BushN. E.SkoppN. A.CampiseR. L. (2015). DoDSER Department of Defense Suicide Event Report: Calendar Year 2014 Annual Report. Washington, DC: Department of Defense.
RegerM. A.SmolenskiD. J.SkoppN. A.Metzger-AbamukangM. J.KangH. K.BullmanT. A.. . . GahmG. A. (2015). Risk of suicide among US military service members following Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment and separation from the US military. JAMA Psychiatry, 72, 561. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.3195
42.
RingerF. B.SoberayK. A.RogersM. L.HaganC. R.ChuC.SchneiderM. E.. . . JoinerT. E. (2018). Initial validation of brief measures of suicide risk factors: Common Data Elements used by the Military Suicide Research Consortium. Psychological Assessment. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/pas0000519
43.
SchoenbaumM.KesslerR. C.GilmanS. E.ColpeL. J.HeeringaS. G.SteinM. B.. . . CoxK. L. (2014). Predictors of suicide and accident death in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). JAMA Psychiatry, 71, 493-503.
44.
SilvaC.HaganC. R.RogersM. L.ChiurlizaB.PodlogarM. C.HomM. A.. . . JoinerT. E. (2016). Evidence for the propositions of the interpersonal theory of suicide among a military sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology. doi:10.1002/jclp.22347
45.
StanleyI. H.JoinerT. E.BryanC. J. (2017). Mild traumatic brain injury and suicide risk among a clinical sample of deployed military personnel: Evidence for a serial mediation model of anger and depression. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 84, 161-168. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.10.004
46.
StrosahlK.ChilesJ. A.LinehanM. (1992). Prediction of suicide intent in hospitalized parasuicides: Reasons for living, hopelessness, and depression. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 33, 366-373. doi:10.1016/0010-440X(92)90057-W
47.
TaylorS.ZvolenskyM. J.CoxB. J.DeaconB.HeimbergR. G.LedleyD. R.. . . CardenasS. J. (2007). Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: Development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3. Psychological Assessment, 19, 176-188.
48.
UrsanoR. J.KesslerR. C.SteinM. B.NaifehJ. A.AliagaP. A.FullertonC. S.. . . HeeringaS. G. (2015). Suicide attempts in the US Army during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 2004 to 2009. JAMA Psychiatry, 72, 917-926. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.0987
van de SchootR.LugtigP.HoxJ. (2012). A checklist for testing measurement invariance. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 486-492. doi:10.1080/17405629.2012.686740
52.
Van OrdenK. A.CukrowiczK. C.WitteT. K.JoinerT. E. (2012). Thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness: Construct validity and psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 24, 197-215. doi:10.1037/a0025358
53.
VandenbergR. J.LanceC. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3, 4-70. doi:10.1177/109442810031002
54.
VillatteJ. L.O’ConnorS. S.LeitnerR.KerbratA. H.JohnsonL. L.GutierrezP. M. (2015). Suicide attempt characteristics among veterans and active-duty service members receiving mental health services: A pooled data analysis. Military Behavioral Health, 3, 316-327. doi:10.1080/21635781.2015.1093981
55.
WarnerC. H.AppenzellerG. N.ParkerJ. R.WarnerC. M.HogeC. W. (2011). Effectiveness of mental health screening and coordination of in-theater care prior to deployment to Iraq: A cohort study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168, 378-385. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10091303
56.
WeathersF. W.HuskaJ.KeaneT. (1991). The PTSD Checklist–Military Version (PCL-M). Boston, MA: National Center for PTSD.
57.
WilkinsK. C.LangA. J.NormanS. B. (2011). Synthesis of the psychometric properties of the PTSD checklist (PCL) military, civilian, and specific versions. Depression and Anxiety, 28, 596-606. doi:10.1002/da.20837
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
