Stability and Change of Ego Resiliency From Late Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Multiperspective Study Using the ER89–R Scale

Abstract

In this research, we examined the psychometric properties of the Revised Ego Resiliency 89 Scale (ER89–R; Alessandri, Vecchio, Steca, Caprara, & Caprara, 2008), a brief self-report measure of ego resiliency. The scale has been used to assess the development of ego resiliency from late adolescence to emerging adulthood, focusing on different ways to define continuity and change. We analyzed longitudinal self-report data from 267 late adolescents (44% male) using 4 different approaches: factor analysis for testing construct continuity, correlational analysis for examining differential stability, latent growth modeling for analyzing mean level change, and the reliable change index for studying the occurrence of change at the individual level. Converging evidence points to the marked stability of ego resiliency from 16 to 20 years, both for males and females. The scale predicts externalizing and internalizing problems, both concurrently and at 2 and 4 years of distance. Findings suggest that the ER89–R scale represents a valid and reliable instrument that can be fruitfully suited for studying ego resiliency through various developmental stages.

Notes

¹As before, we constrained factor loadings and error variances of OR and OL to be equal.

²We tested several alternative models and found them to yield poorer fit indexes than the strict stability model. Results are available from M. Vecchione.

³Zero-order correlations between ER and internalizing varied from –.27 to –.39 within time and from –.29 to –.42 across time. Correlations between ER and Externalizing varied from –.13 to –.36 within time and from –.24 to –.39 across time.

⁴To calculate RC, we used the adjusted formula proposed by Hageman and Arrindell (1993), which takes into account regression to the mean due to measurement unreliability.