Psychometric Evidence of Plutchik's Suicide Risk Scale in the Ecuadorian Context: Factor Analysis in a Clinical Sample

Abstract

Suicide constitutes a serious public health problem globally and nationally, with a significant impact on child, adolescent, and youth populations. Consequently, there is a need for valid and reliable instruments for its early detection. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of Plutchik's Suicide Risk Scale, in its Spanish-adapted version, applied to an Ecuadorian clinical sample. An instrumental study was conducted using a secondary database of 299 patients (164 women) over 18 years of age hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital during 2022. Internal consistency and the factor structure of the instrument were analyzed. Exploratory analysis revealed factor solutions of two, four, and seven dimensions. In the confirmatory analysis, the four-dimension model was evaluated. Results provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the instrument in a clinical context, contributing to the debate on its dimensionality, given the structural variability reported in previous studies conducted across different countries. Findings reinforce the relevance of having psychometrically robust tools to assess suicide risk in the Ecuadorian clinical population and highlight the need to continue evaluating its factor structure across various clinical settings along with its practical implications.