Background: The main objective of this work was to design and validate a new measuring instrument, called SENTIA, for assessing suicidal behavior in Spanish adolescents.
Method: a total of 1790 randomly selected students participated in the survey. The average age was 15.70 ( SD =1.26), 53.7% of the sample were girls.
Results: The results of exploratory factor analyses suggested that the dimensional structure that best explained the SENTIA scores was a bifactor model, specified in a general suicidal behavioral factor plus three specific factors (Ideation, Communication, and Act/Planning). SENTIA scores demonstrated adequate levels of reliability. None of the SENTIA items showed differential functioning by gender. SENTIA scores were positively associated with suicidal ideation, symptoms of depression, emotional and behavioral problems, and psychotic-like experiences.
Conclusions: SENTIA is a useful, easy, brief measuring instrument that has been specifically constructed and validated for the assessment of suicidal behavior in Spanish adolescents. As a screening tool, SENTIA can help the analysis, evaluation, understanding, and intervention in a the major socio-health problem that is suicide.