An abbreviation of the scale of protective factors: Resilience in a medical trauma sample

Abstract

Medical trauma is related to traumatic stress and poor health recovery. Those who are able to overcome medical trauma are said to be resilient. However, research examining resilience in the context of adult health has been limited by reliance upon measures assessing cognitive, to the exclusion of social, protective factors. The Scale of Protective Factors (SPF-24) is a valid and reliable measure of adult resilience and it assesses both social and cognitive protective factors. Because time may be of short supply in a medical event and lengthy assessments may be overly burdensome, it is the purpose of the present study to abbreviate the SPF-24 for use in medical settings. The sample of 420 Southwestern university students were selected based on an experience of childhood poverty and/or growing up in a single parent/guardian household. The present study examined model fit and reliability of an abbreviated SPF consisting of 12 items (SPF-12). Results indicate that the SPF-12 achieved good model fit and adequate reliability. Additionally, we examined the construct validity of the SPF-12 on a sub-sample of those who reported medical trauma. The SPF-12 is significantly positively correlated with another measure of resilience (CD-RISC-10) and with psychosocial well-being. The SPF-12 was significantly negatively correlated with depression (BDI-II). A discussion of the usefulness of the SPF-12 in developing therapeutic plans is offered along with future directions for clinical and research settings.