Abstract
BackgroundThe concept and assessment of resilience have attracted considerable attention in recent years, but none of the instruments developed to measure resilience in adolescents have been adapted to the Spanish context. The Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire (ARQ) provides a comprehensive and multidimensional assessment of the resources associated with resilience in adolescents.MethodsThis study analyzes the psychometric properties of the ARQ. Participants included a community sample of 1101 Spanish adolescents (53.5 % boys) aged 12–17 years (M = 14.51; SD = 1.755).ResultsResults confirm the factor structure based on 12 scales. Internal consistency was generally adequate (between .60 and .84), although the unacceptable coefficient for the Empathy/Tolerance scale (α = .38) means that this scale needs to be revised for the Spanish context. Relationships between ARQ scales and psychopathology were in the expected direction and magnitude. Some gender differences were observed, with higher scores for boys on Confidence and Negative cognition.ConclusionsThe Spanish version of the ARQ can help to identify personal characteristics associated with resilience and signs of positive engagement with family, peers, school, and the community. It can identify those adolescents most likely to show resilience in response to adversity, as well as those who may be vulnerable under situations of stress.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12955-015-0259-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The concept and assessment of resilience have attracted considerable attention in recent years, but none of the instruments developed to measure resilience in adolescents have been adapted to the Spanish context
In addition to the dimensional structure and internal consistency analyses, two other pieces of evidence concerning validity are assessed: a) relationship with psychopathology: even though studies have not been conclusive regarding the relationship between different types of resilience and the development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, resilience and psychopathology have been shown to influence each other [14, 15], so we hypothesized that adolescents with higher global resilience scores will present lower levels of symptoms of psychopathology, both internalizing and externalizing [26]; and b) differences between genders: since previous studies have reported significant sex differences when assessing resilience in adolescents [17], we examine whether boys and girls differ on this variable
Sample description The final sample consisted of 1101 adolescents (53.5 % boys and 46.5 % girls) aged 12–17 years (M = 14.51; SD = 1.76), the large majority of whom were Spanish nationals (94.7 % Spain; 3.6 % Central and South America; 0.8 % rest of Europe; 0.7 % Asia; 0.2 % Africa)
Summary
The concept and assessment of resilience have attracted considerable attention in recent years, but none of the instruments developed to measure resilience in adolescents have been adapted to the Spanish context. Despite the increasing number of scientific papers that have addressed this construct in recent decades [2], several controversies and questions remain as regards its conceptualization, and this has direct implications for its measurement These problems include the lack of consensus over its definition [3, 4], the possibility of considering it either as a positive outcome in the face of adversity or as a dynamic process of adaptation to risk [5], its relationship to the presence of specific risk and protective factors [6], resilience as global or multidimensional [7], and the question of whether it should be regarded as a stable or dynamic construct [8,9,10]. The instruments with the best psychometric properties are targeted at adults, the population for which most such measures have been designed
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