Development of a Hungarian Resilience Scale for preschoolers’

• In Event: The impact of stress and coping on development: Measurement and mechanisms

Abstract

Introduction: Masten (2001) refers to resilience as “ordinary magic”: a positive, adaptive response despite of negative events, such as natural disasters and pandemics or more common stressful events in one’s life threatening the function, viability or development of the self. Resilience in preschoolers can be measured with quantitative and qualitative methods, including classroom observation, interviews of children’s parents or teachers (Lin, 2016). Most parental rating scales assessing preschoolers’ resilience are quite long: item number ranges from 37 to 62 (Goldstein & Brooks, 2005). The aim of the present study was to develop a Hungarian Resilience Scale to be used among kindergarten-aged children based on parental reports.
Methods: We have developed a Hungarian Resilience Scale parental version (HRS-P-10) based on Járai et al, 2015. This novel Hungarian Resilience Scale parental version (HRS-P-10) was completed voluntarily by 166 parents in two kindergartens. Mean age of the children was 4.58 ± 1.06. Focus of the present analysis was to investigate the reliability of this modified scale.
Results: Ratio of unfinished or incomplete parental ratings were below 1%. Internal consistency analysis showed good reliability (Chronbach α = 0.820). Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a one-factor structure. Discriminant validity analysis investigating the relationship between HRS-P-10 and EAS temperament questionnaire (Buss and Plomin, 1984) showed moderate correlations, as expected.
Conclusion: The HRS-P-10 is a feasible Hungarian scale to assess resilience of children rated by their parents. The 10-item one-factor scale is easy to administer and score. Our future goal is to further investigate and validate this scale with other questionnaires and with objective, behavioral data.

Keywords: resilience, kindergarten-aged children, parental rating

Authors

• Bianka Gönye, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University; MTA-ELTE Lendület Adaptation Research Group
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helga Stadler, MTA-ELTE Lendület Adaptation Research Group, Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Szekely, MTA-ELTE Lendület Adaptation Research Group, Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eszter Kotyuk, MTA-ELTE Lendület Adaptation Research Group, Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University
  Presenting Author