Abstract
The Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory is a 48-item scale on which respondents rate how important each item would be for living if suicide were contemplated. The inventory possesses good psychometric properties and can distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal people among shoppers, psychiatric inpatients, college students, and adolescents. As its length limits its utility in many institutional and screening settings, the purpose of this study was (1) to develop a brief form of the Reasons for Living Inventory appropriate for clinical use and (2) to examine the predictive validity of this brief measure, named the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory (BRFL), to distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal prison inmates. Results indicate that the brief form was as good as either the Beck Depression Inventory or the Beck Hopelessness Scale at predicting suicidality in this population. Further study is needed to validate the BRFL with different institutionalized and other populations as well as to assess its ability to discriminate suicide ideators from those engaging in overt suicidal behavior.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beaver, C. W. (1972). Hope and suicide in the concentration camp. In E. S. Shneidman, (Ed.),Death and the college student (pp. 12–29). New York: Behavioral Publications.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Beck, A. T., Resnik, H. L. P., & Lettieri, D. J. (Eds.). (1974).The prediction of suicide. Bowie, MD: Charles Press.
Beck, A., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: The Hopelessness Scale.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–865.
Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M., & Weissman, A. (1979). Assessment of suicidal intention: The scale for suicidal ideation.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 47, 343–352.
Bollen, K. A. (1989).Structural Equations with Latent Variables. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Clum, G. A., Patsoikas, A. T., & Luscomb, R. L. (1979). Empirically-based comprehensive treatment program for parasuicide.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 47, 937–945.
Cole, C. A. (1989). Validation of the Reasons for Living Inventory in general and delinquent adolescent samples.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 13–27.
Edward, A. L. (1970).The measurement of personality traits by scales and inventories. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Frankl, V. E. (1959).From death camp to existentialism. Boston, MA: Beacon.
Goodstein, J. (1982).Cognitive characteristics of suicide attempters. Doctoral dissertation. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America.
Guttman, L. (1953). Image theory for the structure of quantitative variates.Psychometrika, 18, 277–296.
Harman, H. H. (1976).Modern Factor Analysis (3rd ed., rev.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hoffman, R. J. (1977). Indices descriptive of factor complexity.Journal of General Psychology, 96, 58–66.
Hoffman, R. J. (1978). Complexity and simplicity as objective indices descriptive of factor solutions.Multivariate Behavioral Research, 13, 247–250.
Ivanoff, A., & Jang, S. J. (1991). The role of hopelessness and social desirability in predicting suicidal behavior: A study of prison inmates.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 394–399.
Kreitman, N. (1977).Parasuicide. London: Wiley.
Lawley, D. N., & Maxwell, A. E. (1971).Factor analysis as a statistical method. London: The Butterworth Group.
Linehan, M. M. (1981). A social-behavioral analysis of suicide and parasuicide: Implications for clinical assessment and treatment. In H. G. Glazer & J. F. Clarkin (Eds.),Depression: Behavioral and directive intervention strategies (pp. 229–294) New York: Garland Press.
Linehan, M. M., Goodstein, J., Neilsen, S. L., & Chiles, J. A. (1983). Reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The Reasons for Living Inventory.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 276–286.
Long, J. S. (1983).Confirmatory factor analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Maris, R. W., Berman, A. L., Maltsberger, J. T., & Yufit, R. I. (1992).Assessment and prediction of suicide. New York: Guilford.
Mulaik, S. A. (1972).The foundations of factor analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Neuringer, C. (Ed.) (1974).Psychological assessment of suicide risk. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
Neyra, C. J., Range, L. M., & Goggin, W. C. (1990). Reasons for living following success and failure in suicidal and nonsuicidal college students.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 861–868.
Osman, A. Jones, K., & Osman, J. R. (1991). The Reasons for Living Inventory: Psychometric properties.Psychological Reports, 69, 271–278.
Osman, A., Gifford, J., Jones, T., Lickiss, L.,et al. (1993). Psychometric evaluation of the Reasons for Living Inventory.Psychological Assessment, 5, 154–158.
Pruzek, R. M. (1977). Factor analysis. In J. Belzer, (Ed.),Encyclopedia of computer science and technology (pp. 161–187). New York: Marcel Dekker.
Range, L. M., & Ellis, J. B. (1989). Does mood affect reasons for living? Yes.Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 3, 223–234.
Range, L. M., Goggin, W. C., & Steede, K. C. (1988). Perception of behavioral contagion of adolescent suicide.Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior, 18, 334–341.
Steede, K. C., & Range, L. M. (1989). Does television induce suicide contagion with adolescents?Journal of Community Psychology, 15, 24–28.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Support for this project was provided in part by the New York State Office of Mental Health Bureau of Forensic Services and the New York State Department of Correctional Services.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ivanoff, A., Jang, S.J., Smyth, N.J. et al. Fewer reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The brief reasons for living inventory. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 16, 1–13 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02229062
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02229062