Validation of the Bidimensional Resilience Scale for North American College Students

A Classification of the innate and acquired factors

July 2, 2014

Mari Hirano Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo

Introduction

My awareness of the issue

Can every individual learn

resilience equally?

How can people with low

resilience by nature

smoothly acquire resilience ?

2

Review of resilience from the viewpoints

of innateness Association temperament and inherited biological

bases in personality

Personality

Temperament Character

Cloninger (1993)

3

Bidimentional Resilience Scale (Hirano, 2010) Developed based on Cloninger’s theory

21 items with a five-item scale ranging

Resilience factors

optimism control sociability vitalityattempt to

solve a

problem

self-

understan

ding

understa

nding

others

TC

I

Tem

pera

men

t NS .23 *** -.08 .13 * -.09 .02 .07 -.01

HA -.36 *** -.53 *** -.31 *** -.07 -.04 -.11 -.10

RD -.07 -.12* .15* .07 .14 * .04 -.04

PS .08 .07 .05 .40 *** .17 * .07 .13 *

Chara

cte

r SD .08 -.07 .03 .16 * .27 *** .28*** .01

CO .08 .23*** .10 .20 ** .29 *** .06 .13

ST .07 ** -.02 .15 * .12 * .11 .12 .31 ***

strongly correlated

with temperament

strongly correlated

with character

4

Bidimentional Resilience Scale (Hirano, 2010)

innate factors acquired factors

optimism

control

sociability

vitality

Attempting

to solve

a problem

self-

understanding

understanding

others

.86

.65

.91

.62.79

.80

.72

.76

strongly correlated

with temperament

strongly correlated

with character

GFI = .919AGFI = .897RMSEA = .061

5

Validation: twin method (Hirano, 2011)

Innate factors:

Correlation was seen among the MZ twins,

while the DZ twins did not show any correlation

Acquired factors:

Significant correlation was seen among both MZ

and DZ twins

MZ (41 pairs) DZ (15 pairs) difference in the ICC between

MZ and DZ ICC 95%CI ICC 95%CI

innate factors .67 *** .46 - .81 .07 -.43 - .54 p<.05

acquired factors .56 *** .32 - .74 .80 ** .51 - .93 n.s.6

Validation: longitudinal research (Hirano, 2012)

The temporal stability was confirmed.

People who had experienced more positive life events

in achievement domains tended to have higher scores

on acquired factors.

innate factors(Time1)

acquired factors(Time1)

innate factors(Time2)

acquired factors(Time2)

negative events in interpersonal domains -.14 -.06 -.09 -.01

negative events in achievement domains -.06 -.22 -.14 -.14

positive events in interpersonal domains .08 .16 .01 .10

positive events in achievement domains .21 .24 .09 .26 *

7

Relationship between innate/acquired factors and

psychological sensitivity (Hirano, 2012b)

(Highly Sensitive Person; HSP; Aron, 1997)

psychologically

sensitive people had

low-innate factors.

In contrast, no relation

between sensitivity

and acquired factors. 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

非敏感群 中間群 敏感群

資質的レジリエンス要因 獲得的レジリエンス要因

non-sensitive highly sensitivemedian

innate factors acquired factors8

The applicability of

the BRS English version

in North American students

9

Method

North American Students November, 2013

350 college students

Mean age=21.2 years (SD=2.58)

filled out online the BRS English version

.

Comparative data: Japanese Students October, 2008

433 university and college students

Mean age=20.7 years (SD=4.05)

administered during class time10

Result

The bidimensional structure was confirmed

(GFI=.900, AGFI=.873, RMSEA=.045)

High internal reliability

(total scale; α=.88, subscale; α=.82, .76)

innate factors acquired factors

optimism

control

sociability

vitality

attempting to

solve a problem

self-

understanding

understanding

others

11

North American students showed higher resilience

score compared with Japanese students.

12

Conclusions

A two-dimensional resilience scale (BRS) of strong

innate and strong acquired characteristics was

developed to design methods of heightening

acquired resilience.

The applicability of the BRS English version in

North American students was confirmed.

13

Subsequent discussion

Do they have only to learn ‘acquired factors’ ?

Acquired factors do not have an effect as

much as innate factors have. (Hirano, 2012)

How can people with low

resilience by nature

smoothly acquire resilience ?

14

from the analysis of description…

by themselves with others

innate factors acquired factors

15

16

1. I think that things will work out on most occasions in any case.

2. I am good at preserving friendships since I was a child.

3. I understand my personality well.

4. I think that things will work out finally even if I have no confidence.

5. It is good to be intimate with another person.

6. When I am faced with unpleasant situations, I try to gain

something from those experiences.

7. I often fail to understand my own feelings or thoughts.

8. I have enough stamina.

9. I value working hard.

10. I am good at detecting others’ feelings or changes in facial

expressions.

11. I can handle difficult experiences well.

12. I can carry out decisions through to the end.

13. I treat someone with consideration.

14. I think that I can wriggle out when faced with a difficult problem.

15. I am an outgoing person and have a wide circle of friends.

16. When misunderstandings arise with others, I willingly have

more talks.

17. I understand how unpleasant things influence my feelings.

18. When I am faced with unpleasant situations, I try to gather

information to solve the problem.

19. I can control my feelings even if there is a disagreement.

20. I think I have perseverance.

21. I am good at understanding others' ways of thinking.

Reference• Aron, E. N. (1997). The Highly Sensitive Person. New York: Broadway

Books.

• Cloninger, C. R. (1993). A psychobiological model of temperament and

character. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 975–990.

• Hirano, M. (2010). A study of the classification of resilience factors:

development of the Bidimensional Resilience Scale (BRS). The

Japanese Journal of Personality, 19, 94–106.

• Hirano, M. (2011). Validity of the Bidimensional Resilience Scale for

junior high and high school students: an analysis using the twin

method. The Japanese Journal of Personality, 20, 50–52.

• Hirano, M. (2012a). The Relationship between the Bidimensional

Resilience Scale and Life Events. The Japanese Journal of Personality,

21, 94–97.

• Hirano, M. (2012b). The Buffer Effect of Resilience on Psychological

Sensitivity: Can Acquired Resilience Redeem Innate Vulnerability?.

The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 60, 343–354. 17