Work

The Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Versions of the Brief Hopelessness Scale with Positive and Negative Valence among Adolescents

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Introduction: The present study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish versions of the Brief Hopelessness Scale with positive and negative valence, Brief-H-Pos and Brief-H-Neg, in adolescents who presented to child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinics. Method: The study sample consisted of 248 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who presented to child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinics in two urban centers: Adana and Istanbul. To assess concurrent validity, Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationships among the Brief-H-Pos, Brief-H-Neg, Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha, the Spearman-Brown coefficient, and item-total correlations. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were conducted to determine the diagnostic utility of the Brief-H-Pos and Brief-H-Neg in identifying adolescents with suicidal ideation. Results: Both the Brief-H-Pos (r = 0.674) and Brief-H-Neg (r = 0.703) demonstrated strong correlations with BDI scores. Additionally, the Brief-H-Pos (r = 0.745) and Brief-H-Neg (r = 0.753) were highly correlated with the BHS, supporting convergent validity. The internal consistency of the Brief-H-Pos was acceptable, with both Cronbach's alpha and the Spearman-Brown coefficient equal to 0.826. Cronbach's alpha for the Brief-H-Neg was 0.816, and the Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.778. The area under the curve (AUC) for the Brief-H-Pos and Brief-H-Neg was 0.745 and 0.780, indicating good discriminative capacity. DeLong's test showed that there was no significant difference between the AUC values of the Brief-H-Pos, Brief-H-Neg, and BHS, suggesting comparable discriminative ability. Conclusion: Both Brief-H-Pos and Brief-H-Neg are valid and reliable instruments for assessing hopelessness in Turkish adolescents. These results also suggest that both brief instruments demonstrate comparable diagnostic capability to the BHS in identifying suicidal ideation, despite their reduced length.

Source: Nöro Psikiyatri Arşivi

DOI: 10.29399/npa.29189