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Methods: The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Participants came from a Suicide Prevention Center and two acute psychiatric hospitals in Taiwan. A convenience sample of 165 caregivers of people who attempted suicide. To be eligible to participate participants had to be a primary caregiver of people who had attempted suicide and be over 18 years of age. The questionnaire consisted of the Chinese version of the 20-item SCCS, developed by the authors and was based on a previous qualitative study. Item analysis was used to delete redundant items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to examine the construct validity. The association between educational level and SCCS was used to examine the concurrent validity of SCCS. Cronbach’s α and test-retest reliability were examined to understand the reliability of SCCS. The study was conducted in 2008 and 2009.
Results: EFA and CFA indicated that a second-order factorial model with five subscales and 19 items best fit the data. The five subscales were proactive prevention, daily living care, seeking assistance from professional resources, seeking assistance from laypersons, and seeking assistance from religious resources. The higher the educational level, the higher the SCCS was. Cronbach’s α and test-retest reliability of total and subscales ranged from 0.67 to 0.90 and from 0.62 to 0.82, respectively. The SCCS had acceptable validity and reliability.
Conclusion: The Chinese version of SCCS has satisfactory reliability and validity. Nurses could use the SCCS to assess the family caregivers’ competence and provide proper education to improve their caring competence for their suicidal relatives.