Development and validation of the Washington resilience scale

Abstract

The dissertation research was an attempt to develop and validate a new self-report measure of psychological resilience. The construct of resilience has its roots in the areas of vulnerability and stress-resistance. Prior research indicated that several factors in childhood were predictive of an individual's health and adjustment later in life. In Study 1, the rational-theoretically derived 22 item self-report scale was found to have a high degree of internal consistency and appeared to be free from social desirability contamination. Factor analyses indicated that the new scale tapped six independent dimensions: problem solving ability, familial support, sociability, emotional coping ability, endurance, and goal persistence. This dimensional structure of the resilience measure was supported by confirmatory factor analyses. Study 2 demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability for both the individual subscales and the total score over a two week period. Study 3 revealed both convergent and discriminant validity with measures of mental health, social networks, and coping skills. In Study 4, the scale was shown to be a useful predictor of athletic performance under competitive stress conditions, a theoretical consequent of resilience. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the generalizability of the proposed model of resilience to the athletic sample. The importance of the resilience construct, the potential utility of the scale, and directions for future validation studies are discussed.