Personal factors underlying resilience: development and validation of the Resiliency Questionnaire for Adults

Resilience outcomes following significant adverse events are related to certain personal attributes, termed resiliency factors. This study aimed to adapt the Prince-Embury resiliency model, developed with children and adolescents, to adult populations. To that end, the Resiliency Questionnaire for Adults (RQA) was developed, consisting of nine characteristics organised around three factors: Sense of Mastery, Sense of Relatedness and Emotional Reactivity. The questionnaire adequacy was tested in adults from both general and health-distressed populations (N = 430) through reliability, confirmatory factor, cross-validation and multiple-group analyses. Criterion validity was assessed via path analysis with latent variables to predict resilience outcomes. The RQA scores were reliable and the three-factor model fitted the data well. The three resiliency factors predicted two-thirds of the variance in resilience. This questionnaire constitutes a reliable and valid assessment of personal factors underlying resilience.