Abstract
Background The resilience construct is of increasing interest in clinical and health psychology. The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) is a measure of protective factors. The evidence supporting its construct validity is good, however evidence of cross-cultural validity is modest.The present study explored the factorial invariance of the RSA across a Brazilian and a Norwegian sample, as well as the construct validity in the Brazilian sample.MethodsThe Brazilian sample (N = 222) completed the Hopkins Symptom Check List-25 (HSCL-25), the Sense of Coherence (SOC), and the RSA. The Norwegian sample (N = 314) was included in order to examine the factorial invariance.ResultsThe results indicated that the latent constructs of the RSA (its primary factors) are the same in the Brazilian sample as in the Norwegian sample. The correlations between the subscales of the RSA were significant. In the Brazilian sample, the correlations with HSCL-25 and SOC were negative and positive, respectively, thus supporting its construct validity.ConclusionThe results indicate that the original factor structure of the RSA based on Norwegian samples remains stable in a Brazilian sample.
Highlights
The resilience construct is of increasing interest in clinical and health psychology
The construct validity coefficients in the Brazilian sample were largely comparable with previously reported findings in Norwegian samples
The degree of model misspecification in terms of RMSEA was within acceptable limits, and it was even smaller in the Brazilian sample than in the Norwegian sample (Hjemdal et al, 2006)
Summary
The resilience construct is of increasing interest in clinical and health psychology. The evidence supporting its construct validity is good, evidence of cross-cultural validity is modest. In addition to focusing on risk and vulnerability, identification and measurement of protective factors are important for widening our understanding of mental health (Masten, 2011). There have been a few attempts of generating self-report measures of protective factors based on resilience research. The resilience construct includes multiple levels of protective factors, such as personal resources, impulse control, problem solving abilities, certain qualities in the family, and social or societal support. Self-report measures of resilience should capture protective factors at several levels in order to be Hjemdal et al BMC Psychology (2015) 3:18 useful across a wider domain of life circumstances that may compromise mental health
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