BackgroundTrauma is a prevalent issue in public health, where individuals who experience physical injuries are also at risk of compromised mental health. Psychological resilience is considered a positive indicator that can predict the prognosis of trauma patients throughout their traumatic experiences. Currently, there is a lack of tools in China for measuring the psychological resilience of trauma patients. The aim of this study was to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Trauma Resiliency Scale (tRS-18) into Chinese and to test its reliability and validity in China.MethodsThe Trauma Resiliency Scale (tRS-18) was translated into a Chinese version suitable for the Chinese language environment using the Brislin translation model. A convenience sampling method was used to select 588 trauma patients as study subjects. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, 14-day test-retest reliability, and split-half reliability. Validity was examined through the content validity index, structural validity, and convergent validity. Structural validity was specifically evaluated through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).ResultsThe total variance explained by the single-factor model in the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Chinese version of the tRS-18 was 62.048%, and the factor loading of each item exceeded 0.4. The results of the CFA indicated that the model demonstrated a favorable fit index (X2/df = 1.620; RMSEA = 0.046; SRMR = 0.026; NFI = 0.945; CFI = 0.978; GFI = 0.927; TLI = 0.975; IFI = 0.978). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the reliability index was 0.963, the test-retest reliability was 0.970, and the split-half reliability was 0.964, which were all within the reference value range.ConclusionThe Chinese version of the tRS-18 has good validity and reliability and can be used as an assessment tool for trauma resilience in trauma patients.