Appropriateness of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency (MAST) scale using a saudi adolescent sample

Abstract

The current study aimed to standardize the multi-position suicidal tendency scale MAST in the Saudi environment as well as to assess suicidal tendencies in adolescents. Moreover, the study aimed to test the psychometric characteristics of the scale among a sample of (490) high school and undergraduate students, in the adolescence who ranging in age from (16-21) years. The scale demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency in terms of validity and reliability tests. as the results showed of exploratory factor analysis to the four dimensions of suicidal tendencies loading on two factors that accommodate 74.60% of the overall variance of the scale (1) the attitude toward life,  and absorbs 43, 20% of the total variance of the scale, and includes the dimensionality of the attraction to life and repulsion by Life. 2) The attitudes toward death and absorbs 31, 40% of the total variance of the scale and includes the dimensionality of the repulsion by Death and Attraction to Death. For confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), it confirmed the validity of the dimensions of the scale (Model 1) (the four factors). It measures the suicidal tendencies of the two underlying factors (attitudes toward life and death), as the coefficient of the sincerity of the four observed factors, or their saturations on their factors: (0.66, 0.77, 0.79, 0.68), respectively, of the factor general suicidal tendencies. In the field of persistence, the alpha coefficient of the scale as a whole is (0, 88), and the coefficient of persistence of the Spearman-Brown and Gutmann method is included for the dimensions of the suicidal tendency scale between (0, 80, 0, 89). Accordingly, the study confirmed the validity of the scale for use in the Saudi environment within the limits of the current study, with a recommendation to apply it to clinical or special cases.