Use of the Modified Emotional Stroop Task to Detect Suicide Risk in College Students

It is a challenge to detect those who are at potential risk for suicide because the base rate of suicidal behaviors in non-clinical samples is low. The aim of the present study was to investigate the concurrent and predictive validity of the emotional Stroop task (EST) as a behavioral marker for suicidal behaviors in a college population. Eight hundred and twenty students were asked to perform the EST and to respond to suicide-related self-report measures and were followed up with18 months later. The results indicated that participants with past suicide attempts had longer response latencies to the word " suicide " as compared to non-attempters. Further, those with attentional bias toward suicide-related words at baseline were more likely to report suicidal behaviors during the follow-up period. The EST latencies were not affected by ethnicity, but a possible gender effect was detected. These results are discussed as they pertain to suicide risk assessment among college students.