Psychometric Properties of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 in a Community Sample of African American Adults: Exploring the Role of Gender

• Published in: Traumatology (Tallahassee, Fla.) Fla.), 2022-06, Vol.28 (2), p.211-222
• Main Authors: Silverstein, Madison W., Mekawi, Yara, Watson-Singleton, Natalie N., Shebuski, Karen, McCullough, Madison, Powers, Abigail, Michopoulos, Vasiliki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Black People; Concurrent Validity; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Differential Item Functioning; Difficulty Level (Test); Female; Human; Human Sex Differences; Male; Resilience (Psychological); Test Validity
• ISSN: 1085-9373; 1085-9373
• DOI: 10.1037/trm0000316

Resilience is the process of adapting effectively to various forms of adversity, stress, or trauma such that overall levels of distress are minimized and is often assessed using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10). Despite growing evidence for its use in international samples, psychometric support for this measure with African American populations is scarce. Thus, in a community sample of African American men and women (N = 4,025, 80% women), we investigated the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC-10 across gender using a variety of statistical techniques, including multiple group confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory, differential item functioning, and examination of patterns of correlations with associated constructs. We found that the CD-RISC-10 was not equivalent across gender and that items only provide coverage at low-to-moderate levels of resilience. Although item difficulty was similar across gender, there were gender differences in item discrimination, item functioning, and patterns of correlations with associated constructs. Taken together, these results indicate that researchers should be cautious when using this measure of resilience with African American populations.