Measuring Resilience

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

The Brief Resilience Scale: Assessing the Ability to Bounce Back

Smith et al. (2008)

Characteristics may increase the likelihood of resilience = “resilience resources”

Quantitative surveys

Measurements using (Likert) scales

Focus was on individual resilience

Personal characteristics, coping style

Defining Resilience

“resilience” as returning to the previous level of functioning (e.g., bouncing back or recovery)

“thriving” as moving to a superior level of functioning following a stressful event

“adaptation” (or “stress adaptation”) changing to adjust to a new situation. Finally, it may be preferable to use

“resistance” (as in “stress resistance” or “resistance to illness”) to refer to not becoming ill or showing a decrease in functioning during stress

The Brief Resilience Scale: Assessing the Ability to Bounce Back

Brief Resilience Scale:

I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times

I have a hard time making it through stressful events

It does not take me long to recover from a stressful event

It is hard for me to snap back when something bad happens

I usually come through difficult times with little trouble

I tend to take a long time to get over set-backs in my life

Rural natives’ perceptions of strengths andchallenges in their communities

Ulrich-Schad (2013)

Used both telephone surveys and focus groups

Qualitative data collection- participants identified important aspects of their community

Focus was on community “resilience resources”

Rural natives’ perceptions of strengths andchallenges in their communities

The focus groups also asked participants to share their perceptions of the existing strengths and challenges in their communities

Defining Resilience

Community Strengths- “Resilience Resources”:

Being close to families

Being in touch with their Native identity and culture

Playing an active role in their community

Community cohesion

Natural beauty of where they live

Defining Resilience- Ungar

Resilience = “Fully able”

Capacity to navigate and negotiate the use of resources that are needed

Requires resources to be available

Resilience is an interplay between personal traits and the environment

Defining Resilience

Resilience capacity is like a bank- resilience is added to and taken from constantly throughout a person’s lifetime

Resilience is NOT static

Resilience capacity changes throughout the life course

Resilience in Public Health

How do we identify and boost factors that contribute to a person/community ‘resilience bank’?

How do we identify and mitigate factors that take withdraw from a person/community ‘resilience bank’?

How do we measure something that is always changing?

Create Your Definition of Resilience

On your own, write down your own definition of resilience

Share your definition with your group

Tweak your own definition if you would like to

Resilience Resources

Identify and list 4 ‘Resilience Resources’ that contribute to a person’s resilience bank

Think about personal traits and community-level characteristics

Examples:

Personal: sense of humor

Community-level: safe neighborhood

Measuring Resilience

Quantitative Measurements: Create one question that could be used to quantitatively measure each of the resilience resources you selected

Alternate between positively and negatively worded questions

Example: I know people I can confide in

Example: The teachers at my school are not interested in my future

Measuring Resilience

Ungar: Qualitative methods are well suited to the discovery of the unnamed protective processes relevant to the lived experience of research participants

Measuring Resilience

Qualitative data can be used to identify resources to be measured quantitatively in future studies

Qualitative Measurements: Create 2 questions that could be used to qualitatively assess the resilience of a person/community

Example: What do you like best about living in your community?

Public Health Practice

Assignment:

Briefly describe one public health program or policy that could be created to increase the ‘resilience banks’ of people living within a community.

What kind of measurement tool would you use to see if resilience increased?

How do you feel resilience relates to self-efficacy?