Resilience in relation to personality and intelligence

Abstract

Resilience is a construct of increasing interest, but validated scales measuring resilience factors among adults are scarce. Here, a scale named the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) was crossvalidated and compared with measures of personality (Big Five/5PFs), cognitive abilities (Raven's Advanced Matrices, Vocabulary, Number series), and social intelligence (TSIS). All measures were given to 482 applicants for the military college.

Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the fit of the five‐factor model, measuring ‘personal strength’, ‘social competence’, ‘structured style’, ‘family cohesion’ and ‘social resources’. Using Big Five to discriminate between well adjusted and more vulnerable personality profiles, all resilience factors were positively correlated with the well adjusted personality profile. RSA‐personal strength was most associated with 5PFs‐emotional stability, RSA‐social competence with 5PFs‐extroversion and 5PFs‐agreeableness, as well as TSIS‐social skills, RSA‐structured style with 5PFs‐conscientiousness. Unexpectedly but interestingly, measures of RSA‐family cohesion and RSA‐social resources were also related to personality. Furthermore, the RSA was unrelated to cognitive abilities.

This study supported the convergent and discriminative validity of the scale, and thus the inference that individuals scoring high on this scale are psychologically healthier, better adjusted, and thus more resilient. Copyright © 2005 Whurr Publishers Ltd.