Development and validation of a brief measure of psychological resilience: The state–trait assessment of resilience scale

Abstract

Objective

Resilience, the ability to bounce back from adversity or change, has undergone many varying conceptualisations, with the most recent consensus being that a combination of state and trait factors are relevant to the consideration of this construct. However, there currently exists no instruments that measure resilience with a state and trait approach, therefore this research aimed to develop and validate the state–trait assessment of resilience scale (STARS).

Method

An online survey containing the STARS and cross‐validation measures was given to a sample of 274 adult members of the community (n_males = 34, n_females = 238, n_gender fluid = 2, M_age = 28.33, SD_age = 10.59).

Results

An item response theory approach to examining the psychometric properties of the STARS supported the measures, which suggested that the state and trait measures reliably estimated the resilience of individuals. The examination of convergent and concurrent validity with other theoretically associated measures provided further support for the validity of the STARS.

Conclusion

The STARS may be a useful measure to track and predict an individual's resilience within a variety of demanding professional contexts, such as work within Allied Health, policing, or the military. Future research using the STARS in samples with different occupational and demographic characteristics to further examine the generalisability of the measure is encouraged.

Key words:

• IRT
• psychometric
• Rasch
• resilience
• state
• trait
• validity

Notes

1. To be updated following blinded peer‐review.