Self-report Measures of Resilience in Children and Youth

Resilience is widely believed to represent a positive and highly desirable attribute in children and adolescents. Generally defined as the dynamic process of coping adaptively with traumatic life events or chronic stress, resilience researchers emphasize different aspects of the construct, leading to variance in measurement tools. No known studies address technical adequacy of self-report assessments of the construct for school-age youth. A systematic review of published literature identified 68 potential instruments; six met inclusion criteria for measuring resilience via the self-report of school-age children and adolescents in the USA. Discussion of psychometric properties and availability information for each instrument is provided.