Abstract

The construct of resilience has been studied relative to competence, cognitive variables and protective ecological factors. Several models have been developed to explain resilience and several instruments have been used to operationalize the construct. There are many instruments that are used to study resilience in a variety of populations. The Resilience Scale (RS) was chosen for further evaluation because of its focus on resilience as a positive personality characteristic. Construct validity of the RS was obtained from correlations with theoretically relevant constructs, such as depression (−0.37), life satisfaction (0.30), morale (0.28) and health (0.26) (Wagnild & Young). Despite some limitations, the RS appears to be a valid and reliable instrument, which can be used with a variety of populations in different stages of health and developmental stage.

Keywords: Resilience, Evaluation, Instruments, Positive attitude