Psychometric properties of the Creole Haitian version of the Resilience Scale amongst child and adolescent survivors of the 2010 earthquake.

ABSTRACT

Resilience is defined as the capacity of human beings to deal with and adapt to adversity, suffering, tragedy or other traumatic event. This study aims to investigate psychometric properties and the underlying structure of the Creole version of the RS among children and adolescents survivors to the 2010 Haitian earthquake. A total of 872 children and adolescents exposed to the earthquake with an average age of 14.91 (SD=1.94) completed the Creole version of RS, the Impact Event Scale-Revised, the Children Depression Inventory and the Social Support Questionnaire-6. The current validity of RS and the internal consistency were investigated; sex, age, religion and others socio-demographic variables differences were also analysed. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the RS was .77; the split-half coefficient was .72. The goodness-of-fit for the 5-factor model presents the best adjusted indices. The total resilience score was correlated positively with social support (r=.42, p<.01). Mean score of the RS was 131.46 (SD=21.01). No significant differences were observed about sex, age and residential municipality. The results showed that the Haitian Creole version of RS is a valid and reliable measure in assessing resilience for the children and adolescent survivors to the 2010's earthquake.