Original Resilience Scale™ (RS™)

The original 25-item Resilience Scale™ (RS™) may be the most popular scale in the world to measure resilience.

After 30 years of research, we know that this measure is reliable and valid supported by hundreds of published studies from around the world.

The Resilience Scale™ (RS™) has been:

  • Translated into dozens of languages (see below).  
  • Requested by thousands of researchers.
  • Published in dozens of journals (see Bibliography).

When you purchase a licensing agreement, you will also receive the indispensable Resilience Scale User's Guide, which is sent electronically so you will have it within 48 hours M-F. 

Please read on if you are interested in more specific information about the Resilience Scale™ (RS™).

The 25-item Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is the original resilience measure and considered the “gold standard” for resilience assessments among researchers around the world. It is a highly valid and reliable 25-item measure and measures resilience in any setting. It was first published in 1993 and is the first resilience assessment to measure resilience directly.

I began the research for this measure in the early 1980s while I studied healthy aging among older adults and psychosocial adaptation to ischemic heart disease among women. I have always been curious about how people adapt during and after major losses and other difficult life events and the Resilience Scale™ (RS™) measures the inner strengths required to adapt positively.

The Resilience Scale™ (RS™) measures strengths rather than limitations. Evidence shows that the more resilient you are the better able you’ll be to handle stress.

Reliability

Cronbach’s alpha ranges from .87 to .95.

Construct Validity

A variety of methods have been used to assess the construct validity of the Resilience Scale™ (RS™) and the accumulation of this evidence over the years supports and continues to support the construct validity. These methods include content analysis, known groups, convergent/discriminant studies, correlation studies, factor analysis, and pretest-posttest intervention studies. A review of the Bibliography on this website will demonstrate the wide range of studies that have established the construct validity.

We have learned that resilience (measured by the Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is positively associated with self-esteem, active coping, forgiveness, health promotion, family health, psychological well-being, sense of community, social support, sense of coherence, healthy lifestyle behaviors, self-care during chronic illness, purpose in life, self-transcendence, religiosity, optimism, high physical function, spiritual well-being, goal achievement, and many other positive qualities.

We have learned that resilience measured by the Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is inversely related to hopelessness, helplessness, passive coping, stress, number of perceived stress events, depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia impact, battle fatigue stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, employee turnover, and other events.

Age groups

The Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is written at the 6th grade level (12-13 years) and can be completed in about 5-7 minutes for most people.

Translations

The Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is available in the following languages:

Bosnian, Chinese, Chinese (Taiwanese), Creole, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Nepali, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Sinhalese, Slovenian, Spanish Castilian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, and Urdu.

Examples of items include:

  • I can usually look at a situation in a number of ways.
  • I am determined.
  • My life has meaning.

Use of the Resilience Scale™ (RS™)

The Resilience Scale™ (RS™) is not offered online. Its primary purpose is for student research and for established researchers.  If you would like an online measure for your organization, wellness program, workshop, university or school setting, we offer the several online assessments for workshops/training, schools, organizations, and coaching/wellness practices.

Indispensable to the use of the Resilience Scale is the Resilience Scale User's Guide, which is sent electronically within 48 hours M-F when you purchase a licensing agreement.

 

If you would like to purchase a licensing agreement to use the original 25 item Resilience Scale in your research, please click on RS.  If you have additional questions, do not hesitate to Contact Us. We usually respond within 72 hours M-F.

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