Establishing the psychometric qualities of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in a trauma survivor sample

Resilience is frequently viewed as an indicator of good adjustment following adversity such as traumatic events. Connor and Davidson (2003) developed a brief self-report scale to quantify resilience over 1000 participants. We collected the data from individuals who are exposed to devastating earthquakes that occurred in 1999 in Turkey. A total of 246 earthquake survivors from the disaster area, with the mean age 35.80 (S.D.=8.6), completed the Turkish version of CD-RISC. The purpose of the study is to validate factor structure of the scale through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using a Turkish sample. In this investigation 52% of the total variance was accounted for by three factors and the obtained factor structure was verified through confirmatory factor analyses. The results indicated that there was no statistical gender difference with regard to the Turkish version of CD-RISC scores. The Turkish version of the scale obtained a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.92. The results showed that the Turkish version of the CD-RISC is a valid and reliable measure of resilience.