The Self-Injury Questionnaire: evaluation of the psychometric properties in a clinical population.

This paper presents the findings, from a clinical study, on the reliability and validity of a new measure for intentions in self-harm behaviour, the Self-Injury Questionnaire (SIQ). Eighty-three patients, who had presented to an emergency department with an episode of self-harm/suicidal behaviour, were given the SIQ as part of a battery of measures to evaluate differentiation in self-harm intentions based upon a history of childhood physical and/or sexual abuse. The internal consistency for the total scale was strong (alpha = 0.83). Construct validity demonstrated significant correlations with standardized measures. A principle component analysis of responses yielded a five-factor solution with 'affect regulation' items loading on the first factor. Cronbach's alphas were adequate for each subscale (alpha = 0.72-0.77). These preliminary findings indicate that the SIQ is a valid and reliable measure for research in an acute self-harming population.

Childhood sexual and physical abuse and adult self-harm and suicidal behaviour: a literature review.

This article reviews the link between childhood sexual and/or physical abuse and adult self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempt from 1988 to 1998 in the clinical literature. Despite the methodological and definitional concerns, empirical studies have generally demonstrated more reports of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behaviour in clinical and community populations of adults who report sexual and/or physical abuse in childhood than in comparison groups who do not report abuse. Implications for practice include the identification of populations at risk for self-harm or suicide and routine inquiry of abuse histories on admission. Further research into universal definitions of the key terms, standardized measurements of the variables, and longitudinal studies is required.