Measurement of resilience in Chinese older people

Resilience has been identified as a personal construct that may contribute to the process of healthy ageing in older people. To date, no measurement instrument has been tested to evaluate resilience in Chinese older people.

To examine the psychometric testing and clinical application of the Chinese version of the Resilience Scale (RS) in Chinese older people.

A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Forward and backward translation procedures were used to obtain semantic equivalence of the original English version of the RS. Content validity was examined by identified experts, followed by exploratory factor analysis, item-to-total correlation, Cronbach's α coefficients and test-retest reliability.

The 25-item Chinese version of Resilience Scale (RS-CN) was fully completed by 461 Chinese older people. Cronbach's α for the total Chinese version of the Revised Resilience Scale was 0.95, with a range of 0.85-0.89 for the sub-scales. Item-to-total correlation coefficients ranged from 0.51 to 0.75 and items were excluded with item-to-total correlations coefficients lower than 0.4. The test-retest reliability of the total scale was 0.80, sub-scale test-retest reliability ranged from 0.61 to 0.620. The exploratory principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed RS-CN to have a four-factor structure.

The RS-CN is a valid and reliable instrument for the measurement of the concept of resilience in Chinese older people. The results of this study provide cross-cultural evidence for the potential application of this scale in Chinese older people.

Greater insight into the psychological constructs of resilience in Chinese older people can lead to international comparisons and to the potential development of interventions for this population around the world.