Publication #3

Background: Resilience is defined as the capacity to successfully maintain or regain mental health and well-being in the face of significant adversity or risk. The Wagnild and Young Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14) is a brief measure assessing resilience. We aimed to assess the psychometric properties of its Greek version in three samples, people with long-term conditions (LTCs) attending the emergency department, people with LTCs attending specialty clinics and people without LTCs. Associations between resilience and mental illness, suicidality, and quality of life were also investigated.

Methods: The RS-14 was administered to 495 participants; 366 patients with diabetes, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) and rheumatic diseases attending either the emergency department (N=74) or specialty clinics (N=292) and 129 individuals without LTCs. Diagnosis of mental disorders was established by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Associations with depressive symptom severity (PHQ-9), suicidal risk (RASS), and health-related quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) were also investigated.

Results: The Greek version of RS-14 showed a coherent one-dimensional factor structure with remarkable stability across the three samples. Cronbach’s alphas were 0.88-0.91 across the three samples, being 0.89 for the entire sample. Furthermore, greater RS-14 scores were associated with better mental health, lower depressive symptom severity and suicidal risk and better health-related quality of life and satisfaction with general health.

Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that the Greek version of RS-14 may reliably assess resilience. In addition, lower levels of resilience are associated with established mental disorders and increased suicidal risk, and thus may detrimentally impact mental health. These findings deserve replication in prospective studies.