An exploratory review of resiliency assessments after brain injury

People with brain injury can have lower resiliency compared to the general public. Yet, resiliency facilitates positive processes to negotiate adversity after brain injury. Therefore, measuring resiliency after a brain injury is important.

The review aimed to (1) identify self-report resiliency outcome measures for use with people after acquired brain injury, using the process-based Traumatic Brain Injury Resiliency Model as the guiding conceptual framework, and (2) summarize the psychometric properties of the identified outcome measures and the utility of these measures in clinical rehabilitation.

The COSMIN guidelines for systematic reviews were followed to ensure appropriate reporting for each measure. Databases CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, and PsychINFO were searched and independently reviewed by two people. Articles providing data on psychometric properties for measures of resilience for people with brain injury were retrieved. Psychometric properties and clinical utility (number of items, scoring details) were summarized.

Thirty-two articles were retrieved, including nine measures of resiliency: Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Acquired Brain Injury, Confidence after Stroke Measure, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Daily Living Self-Efficacy Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Participation Strategies Self-Efficacy Scale, Resilience Scale, Robson Self-Esteem Scale, and the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. All measures have acceptable to excellent psychometric properties in accordance with the COSMIN guidelines.

There are established measures of resiliency in brain injury rehabilitation. Future work may explore use of these measures in a clinical context and implementation of rehabilitation goals for improving resiliency after brain injury.