Measurement Invariance of the Resilience Scale

This study examined the factor structure of the short version of the Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young, 1993) using data collected from college students in three cultures: the U.S., China, and Taiwan. One-factor confirmatory factor analyses(CFA) for each sample showed that items in the short version of the Resilience Scale measured primarily a single factor with CFI > .90, RMSEA < .06, and SRMR<.08. Subsequent four-step multiple-group CFA revealed that the factor structure of trait resilience demonstrated scalar invariance across cultures with CFI=.931,RMSEA=.045, and SRMR=.069. Furthermore, U.S. college students tended to report the highest levels of trait resilience, followed by students from China and Taiwan. The standardized mean differences among these three samples were large. Potential explanations of cultural differences were provided.