Analyses of the structure and preliminary psychometric properties of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale-II (MAST-II)

This study was designed to examine the structure and psychometric properties of a self-report measure, the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale-II (Osman, Gutierrez, Bagge, & Freedenthal, 2006-2012), intended to assess suicide in a college population. Previous research has focused primarily on the association between risk factors and suicide. The MAST-II differs from other suicide assessment methods as it includes both risk and protective factors. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the MAST-II in a non-clinical sample of students from the University of Texas at San Antonio. In the first study the four factor structure, two risk and two protective, proposed by the original author of the scale, was analyzed with Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling(ESEM) and fit indices to analyze other possible factor models. Good estimates of internal consistency reliability for each subscale were obtained. The second study was designed to confirm the four factor model with a separate sample of students. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the four factor model with good internal consistency reliability estimates. As the findings of these studies provide evidence for the MAST-II as a useful and psychometrically sound self-report instrument, future research may focus on trends or scores for specific interest groups with the MAST-II.