Dimensionality and internal consistency of the Roberts’ scale for suicidal ideation among Colombian pregnant women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56294/mw2025458Keywords:
Suicidal ideation, Pregnant women, Validation study, Reproducibility of resultsAbstract
Introduction: Suicidal ideation is an understudied issue during the gestational period, requiring valid and reliable instruments for timely measurement and to provide support in perinatal mental health. However, there are limited scales available to assess suicidal ideation in pregnant women in Colombia.
Objective: To explore the dimensionality and internal consistency of the Roberts’ scale for suicidal ideation in pregnant women from Santa Marta, Colombia.
Methods: 172 pregnant women between 18 and 44 years of age (M=24.7; SD=5.49) completed the Roberts suicidal ideation scale. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were carried out to determine dimensionality and Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients were calculated to establish internal consistency.
Results: In the CFA the Roberts’ scale indicated a unidimensional internal structure explaining 50.5% of the variance and with adequate goodness-of-fit indicators (X2=5.85, gl=2, p<0.054; RMSEA=0.104 (CI90%=0.000-0.210); SRMR=0.025; CFI=0.981; TLI=0.944). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.781 and McDonald's omega coefficient was 0.801, showing acceptable internal consistency.
Conclusions: Roberts’ scale is a brief, reliable measure with strong validity evidence for assessing suicidal ideation in pregnant women. Further instrumental studies with a larger sample size are recommended to corroborate the psychometric performance of the instrument in the Colombian population.
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