Resilience Scale (A complete guide)

This blog aims to give you information about the resilience scales.

In this blog, you will be told about the some of the most effective and commonly used resilience scales.

The uses of these scales, their reliability, validity, different versions, and much more will also be discussed in this blog.

So let’s move on and discover what resilience is and which scales can be used to measure resilience.  

What is Resilience? 

Resilience is the ability of an individual to reflect back from the unpleasant situation or traumatic events.

Ups and downs are a part of life and can not be controlled.

Tragedies do occur most often and they make an individual feel deserted, low, sad, angry, failed etcetera.

If an individual is resilient, he eventually and easily moves on through tough times. 

Resilience can also be referred to as the tendency of an individual to cope with stress.

This helps him in the treatment of other psychological illnesses such as anxiety, anger, depression, and so forth.

1) Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)

Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was developed by Kathryn M. Conner and Jonathan R.T. Davidson in 2003 as a self-report measure for clients experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

The validity and reliability of the scale are really good. The Connor-Davidson resilience scale comes in three different versions namely CD- RISC- 2, CD-RISC- 10, and CD-RISC- 25, with 2, 10, and 25 items respectively.

The Connor-Davidson resilience scale measures resilience and 5 components of resilience including personal competence, acceptance of change and Secure relationships, trust/tolerance/ strengthening effects of stress, control, and spiritual influencers. 

This scale has been preferred by a number of researchers and used in numerous studies, with large sample sizes.

This scale is recognized as one of the higher scoring scales used for evaluating resilience (Windle, Bennett, & Noyes, 2011).

2) Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA)

Resilience scale for adults (RSA) is another self-report measure, developed by Friborg et al. (2003), for evaluating resilience.

It has been specifically designed for adults. The resilience scale for adults is recommended to be used in the health and clinical psychology population. 

Resilience scale for adults contains a total of 5 items that measure intrapersonal and interpersonal protective factors that help an individual bounce back in traumatic events for the distressing situation. 

Friborg et al. (2003) identified 5 elements that help in promoting the resilience of an individual.

These five elements include family support and cohesion, external support systems, and dispositional attitudes, and behaviors.

The items of this scale are based on five factors that include personal competence, social competence, social support, family coherence, and personal structure. 

Friborg et al. performed a study in 2005 using the resilience scale for adults to identify the relationship between personality, intelligence, and resilience.

The research results indicated that there are a lot of links between personality and resilience factors.

An association between higher personal competence and elevated emotional stability was found.

Perhaps there was no significant relationship with cognitive ability (Friborg et al., 2005).

The research results of Friborg et al. (2005) were consistent with the research results of Windle et al. (2011).

The research of Windle et al. revealed that the resilience scale for adults is very effective for assessing protective factors that prevent or help individuals deal with psychological disorders.

3) Brief Resilience Scale

The brief resilience scale is a self-report measure that aims to measure the ability of an individual to bounce back from stress.

The brief resilience scale was developed by Smith et al. in 2008.

This scale has not been used in the clinical population but it does provide intuition for clients experiencing stress-related disorders (Smith et al., 2008).

According to Amat et al. the brief resilience scale constitutes 6 items among which three are positive the worded and three are negatively worded.

All 6 items of this scale aim to measure the ability individual to reflect back in traumatic situations or distressing events.

The scale controlled confounding factors such as protective measures to get accurate results (Smith, et al., 2008).

According to Windle et al (2011), the brief resilience scale is the third and last resilience scale which is very valid and reliable for measuring resilience and there are many other pieces of evidence that prove the effectiveness of these scales.

4) Resilience Scale

The resilience scale is one of the oldest and most commonly used scales developed by Wagnild and Young in 1993.

This scale was developed and validated with a sample of elderly aged 53 to 95 years. 

The resilience scale contains about 25 items and all these items are known to be positively associated with physical health, morale, and life satisfaction.

The items are negatively associated with depression. 

The resilience scale resilience based on five factors. These include meaningful life, perseverance, self-reliance, equanimity, and existential aloneness.

This scale contains two subscales.

The first subscale is personal competence subscale consisting of 17 items while the second subscale is acceptance of self and life subscale constituting 8 items.

Wagnild in 2009 counter checked the reliability, validity, and effectiveness of this scale. 

The resilience scale is also available in a short version consisting of about 14 items.

This 14 items scale is also found to be valid and reliable for measuring resilience (Abiola & Udofia, 2011). 

5) Scale of Protective Factors (SPF)

The scale of protective factors is another scale that measures resilience.

The scale was developed by Ponce-Garcia, Madwell, and Kennison in 2015.

The reliability and validity of the scale have been checked through to a sample of about 1000 college students.

The search results proved that this scale is valid and reliable for measuring resilience especially among people who had experienced trauma.

The way of measuring resilience is different in the scale as compared to the ones previously mentioned.

This scale emphasizes the factors that merge to create a buffer between individuals who had suffered from trauma and stress and negative influences of this trauma or stress on the optimal functioning of the individual. 

Deskera consists of about 24 items that measure two social interpersonal factors and two cognitive individual factors.

Madewell and Ponce-Garcia (2016) the validity and effectiveness of this scale for clinical use.

6) Predictive 6-Factor Resilience Scale

Predictive 6- factor resilience scale was developed on the basis of neurobiological underpinnings of resilience and its postulated relationship with the health hygiene factor (Roussouw & Roussouw, 2016). 

The scale measures resilience on the basis of six domains including vision, composure, tenacity, reasoning, collaboration, and health.

The predictive six-factor resilience scale was found to be very reliable.

It also showed a direct relationship with other questionnaires on resilience along with health hygiene scores.

7) Ego Resilience Scale

The Eco resilience scale was developed by Block and Kremen in 1996. The scale is used for measuring resilience and non-psychiatric clients.

This scale consists of 14 items which are measured on 4 points Likert scale, where 1 = does not apply and 4 = applies very strongly.

The higher the scores, the higher is the resiliency of an individual. 

The scores of ego resilience scale correlate positively with intelligence and support the fact that this scale effectively measures the ability of an individual to reflect back from adversities.

8) Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30)

The academic resilience scale was developed to measure resilience in regard to academic success.

According to Simon Cassidy (2016), academic resilience is the ability of an individual to preserve and flourish in academics in spite of exposure to adversities.

The academic resilience scale emphasizes on both cognitive affective and behavioral responses to academic problems. 

This scale is scored on the basis of a five-point Likert scale where 1 = likely and 5 = likely.

This scale was found to be very reliable and valid.

The scores of this scale were found to be significantly associated with the measure of academic self-efficacy.

9.  The Original Resilience Scale

The original resilience scale consists of 25 items that measure resilience. This scale is very reliable and highly valid.

The internal consistency of the original resilience scale ranges from. 87 to .95.

The validity of the scale was measured using content analysis, correlation studies, known groups, convergent/ discriminant studies, and so forth. 

It can be used in any setting. It was developed in 1993 for the purpose of measuring resilience.

This scale takes about 5 to 7 minutes for completion. To learn more about the scale, visit this site.

How is resilience measured?

Resilience is measured on the basis of 5 dimensions namely personal competence, trust/tolerance/strengthening effects of stress, acceptance of change, and secure relationships, control, and spiritual influences.

What are the characteristics of a resilient person?

A resilient person posses a higher level of self-awareness. He understands his triggers and effectively manages his emotions.

He has the ability to retract back skillfully in times of adversities.

What are the examples of resilience?

Resilience is referred to as the ability of an individual to bounce back in times of adversities.

An example of resilience is like an elastic band, which went stretched and left, comes back to its shape. Similarly, a person who is sick gets better very soon.

What are the key components of resilience?

The key components of resilience include optimism, freedom from stress and anxiety, individual accountability, openness and flexibility, and problem orientation.

What are the 5 skills of resilience?

The five skills of resilience include self-awareness, attention, letting go physically, letting go mentally, and accessing and sustaining positive emotion.

What are the 7 C’s of resilience?

The 7 C’s of resilience include control, competence, coping, confidence, connection, character, and contribution.

This blog gave you information about resilience scales.

The blog explained in detail the concept of resilience and mentioned some of the most effective and commonly used resilience scales along with a little description of each of them.

We hope you like the blog. If you have any questions or queries regarding this blog, let us know through your comments.

We will be glad to assist you.

References 

How to Measure Resilience with these 8 Resilience Scales by Courtney E. Ackerman (2020)

The original Resilience Scale | The Resilience Center

Connor Davidson Resilience Scale: What It Measures And How It Helps by Julia Thomas (2020)

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