Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale: validation study in a Portuguese sample

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to evaluate the structural validity and convergent validity of the first Portuguese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). SETTINGS: The data sets come from two studies conducted in Portugal, respectively, from the Resilience Effect in Coping with Trauma (RECT) project and from the Health Impact Assessment of Employment Strategies (HIAES) project. PARTICIPANTS: The sample is composed of 476 participants from the RECT project and 405 participants from the HIAES project. In both projects, convenience samples were used. MEASURES: The original CD-RISC items were translated to Portuguese and were used in a survey along with additional psychosocial and biomedical measures. RESULTS: Independent exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) with each of the two samples revealed that the best solution in both samples had three factors consistent with the self-efficacy, spirituality and social support factors from the original scale. A Confirmatory factor analysis using the two samples together and specifying the three factors from the EFA revealed a good overall fit and, comparatively, better fit than a model specified with the five factors from the original scale. The study of the convergent validity revealed that bivariate correlations between the three factors and validated measures of stress, life satisfaction, mental health and physical health are globally consistent with previous research. CONCLUSIONS: This study makes available to the broad Community of Portuguese Language Countries a validated measure of resilience extensively used for research and intervention. The results encourage future studies using this translated version of CD-RISC to explore further the three-factor structure found here and to test the convergent validity with new samples.