Psychometric validation of the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale

Resilience is the personality trait of having positive dispositions which enable individuals to cope with stressful situations. Hence, a reliable resilience scale can provide useful information on understanding and treating individuals suffering from stress and trauma. The 10-item Connor-Davidson Resiliance Scale (CD-RISC-10) is a candidate scale. However, very little psychometric research has been conducted on this scale and, moreover, psychometric analyses to date have not been conclusive. To attain further evidence of the scale's psychometric properties, we tested the CD-RISC-10 on 288 adult Education major students at an Australian University using both traditional (factor analyses) and modern (Rasch) measurement approaches. Factor analyses indicated good psychometric functioning of the scale. However, Rasch modelling revealed evidence of item misfit and multiple dimensions. Optimal performance was achieved after the removal of two misfitting items indicating a well-functioning 8-item scale.