Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Resilience Scale in Wenchuan earthquake survivors

Objectives: Resilience refers to the ability to effectively cope and positively adapt after adversity or trauma. This study investigated the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Resilience Scale (RS) for college students with Wenchuan earthquake exposure. Methods: A total of 888 Chinese college students with Wenchuan earthquake exposure completed a set of scales, including the RS, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Self-rating Scale, the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, the Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Scale for Chinese. The internal consistency and concurrent validity were investigated. Sex and regional differences were also examined. Results: The results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 4-factor structure was suitable for both Chinese samples 1 and 2. The Cronbach a coefficient was .94 (P < .01), split-half reliability coefficient was .92 (P < .01), and the test-retest reliability coefficient was .82 (P < .01). The total resilience score was correlated negatively with posttraumatic stress disorder (r = 0.21; P < .01), depression (r = 0.45; P < .01), anxiety(r = 0.34; P < .01), and neuroticism (r = 0.23; P < .01), and correlated positively with extraversion (r = 0.23; P < .01). Men showed higher resilience scores than women, and people living in the high earthquake-exposure areas reported higher level of resilience than those from low earthquake-exposure areas. Conclusions: The Chinese version of the RS was demonstrated to be a reliable and valid measurement in assessing resilience for Wenchuan earthquake survivors. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.