Factor structure of adolescents' scores on the reasons for living inventory

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Abstract
The Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL) has been shown to be reliable and valid for adults. To ascertain its factor structure and internal consistency for adolescents, 128 southern high school students (mean age = 15 years) and 145 adolescent college students completed it. A six factor solution to a principal components factor analysis followed by varimax rotation accounted for 53.6% and 49.8% of the variance in the two groups. For both groups, Cronbach alphas were strong (range = .77 to .92) for all subscales except Moral Objections, which was unsatisfactory (.57 and .61). Means were higher than those of adults who reported never considering suicide. A Goodness of Fit Index was poor, suggesting that the factors in teens' reasons for living are different from adults. The overall RFL score appears to be a reasonable instrument for adolescents to use, and a low score should be taken as particularly troublesome.