Urdu Translation and Validation of Beck Suicide Intent Scale Among Patients with Self-Harming Behavior

Literature emphasizes that there is an increasing need to assess underlying suicide intent among patients with self-harm. Since, Beck Suicide Intent Scale (Beck, 1991) is most frequently used instrument to assess underlying suicide intent in clinical setting, the aim of present research was to translate Beck Suicide Intent Scale into Urdu, to examine cross-cultural validation and estimate reliability of Urdu translated scale; a cross-sectional research design was used. A clinical sample of forty patients with self-harm with age of 18 to 35 years was collected from different mental health departments of hospitals in Rawalpindi, Multan and Jehlum, Pakistan. Study was conducted in two phases; in phase I Urdu translation of Beck Suicide Intent Scale was carried out using guidelines by Brislin (1970). In phase II, cross-language validation was conducted through test-retest Cronbach alpha reliability estimation and item-total correlations. Results of current research revealed that Urdu-Urdu group had high correlation coefficients than English-English with acceptable Cronbach alpha reliabilities were adequate. Moreover, significant positive item correlation with composite score of Beck Suicide Intent Scale was found. The findings of current research established that Urdu-version of Beck Suicide Intent scale was reliable and valid for use in Pakistani culture.