A Validation Study for the Scale of the Media Reports Regarding Suicide

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to develop the evaluating scale of adherence to guideline 2.0 for suicide reporting declared by Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Suicide Prevention Center. METHODS: Four hundred and fifty one subjects who work in suicide prevention center or mental health center across the country participated in survey. They responded to 20 items after reading media report regarding suicide episode. Two hundred and twenty six cases of recruited data were analyzed. Reliability and validity were assessed by Chronbach-α and exploratory factor analysis. Then, confirmatory factor analysis based on another 225 data was conducted. RESULTS: The Results of exploratory factor analysis shows three factor structures. The validity of previous three factor structure based on confirmatory factor analysis was appropriate and the three factor structure consisted of 10 questionnaires with three subconcepts such as ‘glorification’, ‘lasciviousness’, and ‘providing information’. CONCLUSION: Three factor structures in the scale on media reports regarding as suicide is appropriate and this scale will contribute to evaluating suicide report on media.