Resilience Assessment: Importance of Identifying the Person-situation Interaction

Abstract

It has been noted that people can show resilience when facing a kind of adversity but not with others, and also show it in different degrees. Still, there is no measure of adult resilience in different contexts. Previous research with teenagers indicates the adequacy of a contextual model – thus, we aim to validate a subjective contextual resilience test for adults. In our correlational study, we developed a 20 item scale with five problem areas: work, close persons relationships, own health, close person health and economy. It was completed along with CDRISC10 by 416 adults. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of a “5 specific x 1 general†factor model using AMOS, and reliability and correlation analyses. Results show that the 5x1 factor structure is well defined (X2/df=2.06; GFI=.93; CFI=.95; RMSEA=.05). The general scale (GS) has an excellent reliability (?=.90) as well as the subscales (ranging from ?=.71 to .83). The GS-CDRISC10 correlation is good (r=.45). Important implications for research and intervention are derived, such as the vital need of assessing resilience in different contexts and researching the resilience-promoting processes most adequate for each one.