Note: this is a past research project that is now complete.

Background

Researchers at the Centre for Adolescent Health have developed a new measure of resilience. The Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire (ARQ) looks at strengths within:

• self 
• family 
• peer group 
• school 
• community

This new measure of resilience provides a tool to measure a young person's ability to reach positive outcomes despite life challenges. 

Development of the questionnaire

The questionnaire was created from an extensive review of resilience literature and focus groups with young people living with a chronic illness.  The questionnaire has been completed by: 

• A sample of adolescents with a chronic illness, focus groups of adolescents (Time 1)
• A sample of secondary school students (Time 2)

At each time point, these data were used to revise the questionnaire using factor and scale analyses to:

• Develop scales 
• Identify and keep best items with respect to psychometric performance

Description of The Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire

• Brief self-report questionnaire
• 84 items
• 12 sub-scales shown below

		Cronbach Alpha	Number of items
Self	Negative cognition	0.83	8
	Confidence (self and future)	0.81	8
	Emotional insight	0.71	8
	Empathy / Tolerance	0.66	8
	Social skills	0.68	8
Family	Connectedness	0.86	8
	Availability	0.80	3
Peers	Connectedness	0.80	7
	Availability	0.64	5
School	Connectedness	0.66	7
	Supportive Environment	0.80	8
Community	Connectedness	0.87	6

Funders

Bluey Cop Funds (Victoria Police)

MCRI Trainee Research Scholarship

Publications

Gartland, D., Bond, L., Olsson, C. A., Buzwell, S., & Sawyer, S. M. (2011). Development of a multi-dimensional measure of resilience in adolescents: the Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire. BMC medical research methodology, 11, 134. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-134

Contact

Deirdre Gartland

deirdre.gartland@mcri.edu.au