The Social and Emotional Resources Inventory: Further Development of a Comprehensive Self-Report Measure of Protective Factors

ABSTRACT

Childhood trauma has been associated with negative life outcomes including poor emotional adjustment in adulthood, low educational and professional attainment, and all manner of psychopathology. However, recent research has noted that the majority of individuals with histories of childhood trauma adapt successfully to adulthood and live happy and productive lives. Researchers now recognize that the presence of certain protective environmental and personal factors can improve how children cope with obstacles presented by histories of trauma. By identifying these factors, researchers can help clinicians, social justice advocates and others take a pro-active approach to reducing the negative effects of childhood trauma. There currently exists no highly comprehensive measure of protective factors. This study aimed to finalize the Social Emotional Resources Inventory (SERI) – a comprehensive measure of protective factors – by revising the SERI where necessary and providing previously lacking estimates of convergent and discriminant evidence. The final SERI consists of 55 items, grouped into 14 factors, which may be hierarchically grouped into second and third-order factors if necessary. The results of this SERI administration demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability and convergent/discriminant validity across most sub-scales. The results of this study highlight important domains for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Measure
• protective factors
• trauma
• resiliency
• college adjustment

Disclosure statement

Matthew Oberdorfer, Danielle Mohr, and Lee A. Rosén declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Ethical standards and informed

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (Colorado State University Institutional Review Board) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.