The RS14™

 

The 14-item Resilience Scale™ (RS14™) may be the most popular scale in the world to measure resilience.

You don't need to keep searching for an excellent tool to measure resilience. 

After 30 years of research, we know that our measures are: 

Reliable. Valid.  Proven.

The RS14™ 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 RS14™:

Researchers frequently prefer shorter instruments when available to reduce participant burden and increase response. With this in mind, in 2009 I developed a shorter RS14™ derived from the original Resilience Scale called the RS14™.

I did several large surveys before making this instrument available to other researchers. The original Resilience Scale™ (RS™) and the RS14™are strongly correlated (r = 0.97, p>0.001). The Resilience Core (5 essential characteristics constituting resilience) are represented in the RS14™.

Reliability

Cronbach’s alpha ranges from .89 to .96.

Construct Validity

In the ten years since the RS14™ was made available to researchers, its construct validity has been evaluated using content analysis, known groups, convergent/discriminant studies, correlation studies, factor analysis, pretest-posttest intervention studies, similar to the Resilience Scale™ (RS™).

 A review of the Bibliography on this website will demonstrate the wide range of studies that have established the construct validity for the RS14™.

As with the Resilience Scale™ (RS™), we have learned that resilience (measured by the RS14™) 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 RS14™) is inversely related to hopelessness, helplessness, passive coping, stress, number of perceived stress events, depression, anxiety, battle fatigue stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, employee turnover, and other events.

Age groups

The RS14™ is written at the 6th grade level (12-13 years) and can be completed in about 3-4 minutes for most people.

Translations

The RS14™is available in the following languages:

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

Examples of items include:

  • I have self-discipline.
  • I can usually find something to laugh about.
  • My life has meaning.

The RS14™ is not offered online. Its primary purpose is for graduate student research and for established researchers in the university setting. If you would like an online measure for your organization, we offer the online  Resilience Scale.

Indispensable to the use of the Resilience Scale is the Resilience Scale User's Guide, which is sent electronically when you purchase a licensing agreement.

Frequently Asked Questions

Resilience is the capacity to live with purpose, perseverance, equanimity, authenticity, and self-reliance. A strong capacity for resilience leads to lives that are rich, rewarding, and significant. As your resilience grows, you will be better prepared to positively manage change, challenge, and adversity.

Resilient individuals regain their balance and keep going, despite misfortune. They find meaning amidst confusion and tumult. Resilient persons are self-confident and understand their own strengths and abilities. They do not feel a pressure to conform but take pleasure in being unique and will “go it alone” if necessary. Resilient individuals have confidence in their ability to persevere because they have done so before and anticipate rather than fear change and challenges.

Being resilient does not mean that an individual will “bounce back” and return to the same position after experiencing difficulties, but it does mean that equilibrium will be re-established. Resilient persons experience the same difficulties and stressors as everyone else; they are not immune or hardened to stress, but they have learned how to deal with life’s inevitable difficulties and this ability sets them apart.

The RS14™has been used with age groups as young as early teens (13 and 14 years old) as well as the very old (greater than 100 years old). The Flesch Reading Ease is 65.3, which is easily understandable by most 13-year olds. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade level is 6.4, which corresponds with the grade level.

The RS14™ has been associated with health promoting behaviors and self-management of illness in prior studies. More importantly, the RS14™measures the five core characteristics of resilience (purpose, perseverance, self-reliance, equanimity, and authenticity). Individuals, who have a reason to get up in the morning, believe they are capable, and have a drive to keep going, may be more likely to self-manage illness well. This means that a moderate to moderately high score using the RS14™may indicate better self-management potential.

Using the RS14™, the data from thousands of respondents strongly suggest that as one ages, scores on the RS14™ increase. 

The RS14™is consistently and significantly related to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress. When the RS14™ scores increase, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress decrease.

The ‘Terms of Use’ state that if you choose to use the RS14™in your research, you are not allowed to change the wording, number of items, responses, and so forth of the RS14™. This is because the reliability and validity of the RS14™have been tested and reported in its current form and to change the scale may alter the validity and reliability of the RS14™.

Average response time is about 3-4 minutes.

The first thing you need to do is check with me to see if it has already been translated or is in the process of being translated. Then, once you have translated the RS14™retaining the response categories and number of items, it needs to be back-translated to English by someone blind to the original English RS14. The back-translated instrument needs to then be compared to the original RS14™. I am happy to read back-translated versions for accuracy in meaning also. If you are interested in translating the Resilience Scale™ (RS™)RS14™, Resilience Scale for Children™ (RS10™)to a different language, we will require that you follow the WHO translation requirements. Please email me for more information.

If you are a student researcher or an established researcher and would like to consider using the RS14 in your research, you can purchase a licensing agreement directly at RS14

 or Contact Us for more information. We will respond within 72 hours M-F.