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” 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 and challenges 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 and challenges 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?