A psychometric assessment of the Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ)

ElsevierVolume 317, November 2022, 114849Psychiatry ResearchHighlights•

A measure of stigmatizing beliefs about suicide was tested in two studies of active duty military personnel.

The Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire-Short Form (MSAQ-SF) captures four types of beliefs about suicide.

Men held notably more stigmatizing beliefs compared to women.

Personal experience with suicide and mental health services were related to less stigmatizing beliefs.

Highly stigmatizing beliefs were linked to more hesitancy to seek mental health services.

Abstract

Suicide rates remain high among military populations. Stigmatizing beliefs about suicide contribute to the problem of heightened suicide risk as a deterrent for help-seeking. Measurement of military suicide stigma is therefore an important gap in the literature as a necessity toward the development of military suicide prevention programming. This paper assessed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ). Study 1 featured secondary analysis of a suicide risk dataset from active duty treatment-seeking military personnel (N = 200). Study 2 was a secondary analysis of a statewide assessment of Army National Guard service members’ beliefs about mental health and suicide (N =1116). Factor analyses results collectively supported a four-factor Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ) structure: discomfort, unacceptability, support, and empathic views. Subscale reliabilities ranged from 0.77 to 0.83 across samples. Unacceptability and support displayed significant negative correlations with psychological distress. Men displayed more negative suicide-related beliefs compared to women counterparts. Discomfort and unacceptability beliefs displayed significant positive associations with perceived barriers to care. The final short version of the MSAQ is an efficient, multi-dimensional measure of military suicide-related beliefs. The instrument can be used for public health assessment and program evaluation in military settings.

Keywords

Military

Suicide

Stigma

Measurement

Mental health

Barriers to care

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