The development and validation of an Army team resilience measure

Abstract

ABSTRACT Given the demanding nature of its mission, the collective units of the Army, not just individual Soldiers, need to be able to withstand and adapt to a wide range of challenges. Therefore, it is important to be able to effectively assess resilience at the team-level and to understand the factors that can enable or diminish it. This article describes the development of a construct valid and psychometrically-sound measure of team resilience – the Team Resilience Scale (TRS). A theoretical framework of team resilience and related constructs is introduced. We then summarize the procedures for developing the TRS and related constructs, providing evidence of the content validity of the TRS. Finally, we assess the psychometric soundness and construct validity of the TRS in two Army field studies. Our analyses support the convergent validity of items and indicate that the measure can be used to examine three first-order dimensions of resilience (i.e., physical, affective, and cognitive) or as a single overall resilience composite. Results show the TRS was positively related to team performance in both samples and it co-varied with stressors and team actions. Practical recommendations for use of the measure and suggestions for future research are offered.