SOCW 6060 Instruments Measuring Resiliency

SOCW 6060 Instruments Measuring Resiliency

Discussion: Instruments Measuring Resiliency

Social workers strive to make informed decisions about the interventions they implement. These decisions should be driven by what the research data say. As a result, social workers have been called to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions they implement. A common way to evaluate interventions is to use a single-subject design. This involves monitoring an outcome for an intervention implemented for one client. After a social worker works with the client to determine the outcome to be measured, the following steps to the evaluation might look like this:

•        Administer the instrument before the intervention is implemented
•        Implement the intervention
•        Administer the same instrument, after a specified time period
•        Monitor to determine if there have been any changes in the outcome

In this Discussion, you use the lens of resiliency theory when reflecting on a case from your fieldwork, and then you consider how to measure the effectiveness of a possible intervention.

To prepare, read this article listed in the Learning Resources:

•        Smith-Osborne, A., & Whitehill Bolton K. (2013). Assessing resilience: A review of measures across the life course. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 10(2), 111–126. doi:10.1080/15433714.2011.597305

Post:

•        Reflect on your fieldwork experience, and identify a case where it would have been beneficial to employ resiliency theory. Describe the case in 2 sentences.
•        Describe the presenting problem in one concise sentence.
•        Describe an intervention you would implement to promote resiliency.
•        Identify an instrument from the Smith-Osborne and Whitehill Bolton’s article that would be appropriate when employing a single-subject design to evaluate how effective the intervention is in increasing the client’s level of resiliency.
•        Explain why you selected the instrument.

o   In other words, why would the instrument be appropriate? (Consider the age of the client and for whom the instrument was designed, how feasible it would be to administer the instrument such as cost, time to administer it, etc.).

SAMPLE ANSWER

Instruments of Measuring Resiliency

Introduction

Resilience is an important construct that has been found to be predictive of positive outcomes in adulthood. The most commonly used measure of resilience is the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) which has been around since 1969. This scale was developed by Patrick C. Davidson and Robert M. Connor who wanted to create a questionnaire that would help people assess their own resilience levels compared with others’ levels around them.

The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)

The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) is a 20-item self-report measure of resilience. It measures the ability to cope with stressful events, including trauma and abuse. The CD-RISC has been used in a variety of populations and with diverse tools, including interviews and questionnaires. Its development was guided by psychiatrists, psychologists and researchers who wanted to develop a brief measure that could be useful in clinical settings as well as research studies on resilience.

The Resilience Scale

The Resilience Scale is a self-report measure of resilience. It was developed by Dr. Robert Faris and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The scale consists of 28 items with four response options: very true; somewhat true; not particularly true; or definitely not true. For each item, respondents rate their degree of agreement with statements such as “I am able to handle any problem that comes my way” on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

The Resilience Scale has three main uses: 1) assessing individual differences in resilience within a given population; 2) assessing change over time in an individual’s level of resilience; 3) comparing two populations on their levels of resilience

Checklist of Personal Strengths (COPS)

The COPS is a self-report inventory of 24 items that measures personal strengths. It was developed by Peterson and Seligman in 1999, who were interested in measuring the five domains of character: wisdom, courage, humanity (or kindness), justice and temperance.

The COPS can be used to assess strengths in each domain but also as an overall measure of resilience because it provides information about how people handle setbacks or failures. The test results provide insight into areas where you might need additional support or help from others so that you can improve your ability to cope with daily challenges.

The World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5)

The World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) is a 5-item scale that measures overall mental health. The WHO-5 has been shown to be a highly valid measure of mental health, and it has been used for many years in clinical settings to measure the impact of psychological interventions. As such, it can be used as an index for measuring resiliency in survivors who have experienced trauma or adversity.

The Satisfaction with life Scale (SWLS)

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a scale that measures the degree to which people feel satisfied with their lives. It was developed by psychologist Sheldon Cohen, Ph.D., who used it to measure depression in clinical settings and found that the SWLS correlated more strongly with psychological variables than other self-report instruments he used such as the Beck Depression Inventory or Beck Hopelessness Scale. The 8 items measure how satisfied you are on a scale from 1–8, where 1 represents no satisfaction at all and 8 represents complete satisfaction:

1: I am very unhappy

2: I am somewhat unhappy

3: Somewhat satisfied with my life right now

4: Somewhat satisfied but not completely happy with my life right now  (ease of living)  (satisfied but not fulfilled) *Don’t worry if this sounds confusing—it’s really just an easy way to differentiate between different levels of happiness!

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI)

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is a self-report measure of posttraumatic growth. It was developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun, who based their work on the 20 items from the Resiliency Questionnaire for Adults (RQA), which was originally designed to measure psychological resilience in adults. The PTGI is an eight-item scale that measures how much one has experienced positive changes after experiencing traumatic events like war, natural disasters or other traumatic experiences such as torture or abuse inflicted by others.

The PTGI has been used extensively in research studies and clinical practice settings because it assesses multiple facets of resiliency including coping skills and strengths such as optimism about future events; personal growth; spirituality and meaning making through faith or spirituality; relationship quality with loved ones; self-acceptance/self-esteem etc., which can be useful indicators when determining whether someone has been resilient enough not only during their time of trauma but also afterward!

Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA)

The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) is a self-report questionnaire developed by the University of California, San Francisco. It was designed to measure resilience in adults and has been used in various research studies. The RSA is based on the work of the Resilience Scale for Children (RCS), which was published in 2006 by Martin Seligman and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center.

Resiliency Assessment Score (RAS)

You may have heard of the Resiliency Assessment Score (RAS), a self-administered questionnaire designed to measure resilience in adults. The RAS is a psychometrically sound instrument that has been used in many studies and has been translated into many languages.

The RAS includes seven subscales:

• Self-Efficacy: This scale measures an individual’s confidence in their ability to deal with stressors and cope with difficulties, regardless of whether they are present or absent from one’s life at any given time. A score higher than 3 indicates high self-efficacy; conversely, below 3 indicates low self-efficacy.* Emotional Intelligence: This scale measures an individual’s ability to identify emotions other than anger/aggression/frustration/sadness/happiness among others who are experiencing them; it also measures how well someone can understand other people’s feelings based on their own experiences.* Social Skills: This scale measures an individual’s knowledge about social rules (e.g., keeping conversations courteous) as well as his or her ability to apply these guidelines appropriately during interactions with others.* Stress Management Skills: This scale measures an individual’s ability to handle stressful situations effectively through effective problem solving methods rather than reacting negatively when faced with difficulty situations

Understanding the various resilience and happiness assessment instruments.

To begin, let’s take a look at resilience and happiness. What is resilience? Resilience is the ability to rebound from adversity. It can be measured by looking at a person’s long-term ability to bounce back after stressful events such as divorce or losing a job. Happiness, on the other hand, is how you feel about your life overall—your moods and feelings during different parts of each day (e.g., good morning vs afternoon).

The two most widely used instruments for measuring resilience are the Connor Davidson Scale (CD) and Leiter Happiness Questionnaire (LHQ). Both of these tools have pros and cons that make them useful in certain situations but not others; this section will explore these differences further so that you can decide which tool would be best suited for your needs!

Conclusion

These assessment instruments are a good place to start, but they’re not the only ones out there. There are many different types of assessment tools that can be used to measure resilience in adults and children. The most important thing to remember is that none of these tools alone will give you the full picture of your resilience levels—you will need to use them all together at some point during your life!