Citation

Fu C, Leoutsakos JM, Underwood C. J. Affect. Disord. 2014; 155: 149-153.

Affiliation

Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205. Electronic address: cfu@jhsph.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2013.10.041

PMID

24215898

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China destroyed towns and village, displaced over a million people and caused thousands of deaths. There is a need to understand how children and adolescents are able to bounce back after this distressing event. This study conducts a psychometric assessment of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the measure's validity among children and adolescent survivors in order to identify the factors associated with resilience in this socio-cultural setting. METHODS: Translated and culturally verified versions of the CD-RISC, UCLA-PTSD Index and Birleson Self-rating Depression Scale were used to collect data from 2132 children and adolescents located in post-disaster areas 1 year after the event. RESULTS: Through exploratory factor analysis, a 2-factor model was found and defined by Chinese scholars as Rational Thinking and Self-Awareness. Internal consistency of total CD-RISC was 0.86, 0.91 for Rational Thinking and 0.74 for Self-Awareness. Convergent validity between items ranged from 0.17-0.69 and 0.12-0.20 to the total score. Items related to post-traumatic stress disorder loaded separately than CD-RISC items, demonstrating discriminant validity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that resilience may be understood and manifested dissimilarly in different socio-cultural settings. This study confirms the applicability of the CD-RISC scale to Chinese children and adolescent earthquake survivors, and adds to the richness of resilience research cross-culturally.

Language: en