Three Factor Model of Personal
Resiliency
The Resiliency Scales for Children and
Adolescents
Use for Preventive Screening and Intervention
Presented by:
Sandra Prince-Embury, Ph.D.
American Psychological Association
Annual Convention
August 7, 2014
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
What is the Definition of Resilience
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“Resilience refers to a class of phenomena characterized by good
outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation or
development” (Masten, 2001, p. 228)
“Psychological resilience has been characterized by the ability to
bounce back from negative emotional experiences and by flexible
adaptation to the changing demands of stressful experiences”
(Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004, p.320).
“Resilience may be briefly defined as the capacity to recover or
bounce back, as is inherent in its etymological origins, wherein
‘resilience’ derives from the Latin words salire (to leap or jump), and
resilire (to spring back).” (Davidson et al., 2005, p. 43)
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Personal Resiliency
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The individual brings to the circumstance
personal strengths that make him/her less
vulnerable, which serve as buffers to
damage, and empower him or her to cope
with and recover from adverse
circumstances.
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Status of Resilience Theory
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Early longitudinal studies viewed resilient individuals as extraordinary in that
they survived adverse circumstances with minimum negative outcome.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A
longitudinal study of resilient children and youth. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Resilience research yielded lists of protective factors including
“competence.” (see work of Rutter, Luthar & Masten)
Resilience theory became more complicated considering context or the
interaction between the person and the environment with studies of
developmental change at a physiological level. Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., &
Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to
understanding the development of emotion regulation. In J. Garber & K.
Dodge (Eds.), The Development of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation
(pp. 15–48). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Masten (2001) suggested that resilience was ordinary magic available to all
based on core developmental systems. (Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary
magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56,
227–238.
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Resiliency Theory in Developmental Psychology: selected references
Garmezy, N. (1991). Resiliency and vulnerability to adverse developmental outcomes
associated with poverty. American Behavioral Scientist, 34(4), 416–430.
Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence
in children: A building block for developmental psychopathology. Child Development,
55, 97–111.
Luthar, S. S. (2006). Resilience in development: A synthesis of research across five
decades. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Risk,
disorder, and adaptation (Vol.3, 2nd ed., pp. 739–795). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons.
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The construct of resilience: A critical
evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3), 543–562.
Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American
Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238
Masten, A. S., & Powell, J. L. (2003). A resilience framework for research, policy, and
practice. In S. S. Luthar (Ed.), Resilience and vulnerability: Adaptation in the context
of childhood adversities (pp. 1–25). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms [Special report].
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57(3), 316–331.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of
resilient children and youth. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1992). Overcoming the odds: High risk children from birth
to adulthood. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (2001). Journeys from childhood to midlife: Risk
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Problems in Resilience Research and Application
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Lack of consensus on definition led some to question the
value of the construct. (Kaplan, 1999, 2005).
Some claim that “resilience” is a phenomenon which cannot
be directly measures but may only be inferred.
Lack of consensus on definition made standardized
measurement and comparisons more difficult.
Interactive/contextual emphasis made research more
complex. Difficult to document significance of subtle
interaction effects.
All of the above makes systematic application more difficult.
Luthar differentiated “personal resiliency,” attributes of the
individual, from “resilience,” the interaction between the
individual and the environment.
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Three Factor Model of Personal
Resiliency
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The Three Factor Model is based on three
previously identified attributes of personal
resiliency reflective of three core developmental
systems:
Sense of Mastery,
 Sense of Relatedness, and
 Emotional Reactivity
and the relationship of these factors to one another
(Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007).
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Identified areas of Personal Resiliency
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Sense of Mastery: optimism, self-efficacy and
adaptability increases the likelihood that the
individual will be able to cope with adverse
circumstances. (Protective)
Sense of Relatedness: Relationships with others
and sense of relatedness serves as a buffer
against stress. (Protective)
Emotional Reactivity: Sensitivity to stress or
impact from adversity is related to the
individuals pre-existing level of emotional
reactivity. (Risk/Vulnerability)
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Three Factor Model of Personal Resiliency
compared with two factor model
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Sense of Mastery:
Sense of Relatedness:
Emotional Reactivity:
Protective
Protective
Risk
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Sense of Mastery
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A child’s sense of mastery and self-efficacy is recognized by most
experts as a core characteristic of resiliency in children and
adults.
Robert White (1959) In 1959 Robert W. White wrote a classic
article for Psychological Review titled, "Motivation Reconsidered:
The Concept of Competence." In it, White proposed a new
concept: effectance motivation. Effectance was described as a
"tendency to explore and influence the environment." White
suggested that the "master reinforcer" for humans is personal
competence. He defined competence as "the ability to interact
effectively with the environment."
Albert Bandura (1977, 1993, 1997) spent many years studying the
mechanisms by which self-efficacy is learned and developed.
Bandura demonstrated in his research that individuals with a
more positive view of their own effectiveness exert more effort to
succeed and are motivated to persist in the face of difficulty or
failure. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control.
New York: Freeman.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
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Early resilience researched examined competence as a strategy for
preventing or ameliorating behavioral and emotional problems.
(Project Competence initiated by Garmazy. (Masten & Coatsworth,
1998; Masten, Burt & Coatsworth, 2006).
Seligman documented the existence of “learned helpless” and
“learned optimism” and their significance in predicting behavior.
Seligman, M. E. P. (1995). The optimistic child. New York:
Houghton Mifflin.
Block & Block introduced the concept of “islands of competence”
which have been more recently discussed by Brooks & Goldstein as
an aspect of a “resilient mindset.” Brooks, R., & Goldstein, S.
(2001). Raising resilient children: Fostering strength, hope, and
optimism in your child. New York: Contemporary Books. San
Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Sense of Relatedness
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Reviewing five decades of resilience research in child
development, Luthar (2006, p. 780) concluded, “Resilience
rests, fundamentally, on relationships.”
The importance of relationships for human resilience has
been noted in every major review of protective factors for
resilience (see Masten & Obradovic, 2008).
The significance of trust was identified by Erikson (1963) as
the first stage of social-emotional development, upon which
all other social development is built.
The attachment system originally described by John Bowlby
in three volumes on attachment and loss (1969) has since
been examined in many studies of attachment in human
development
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
Emotional Reactivity
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Much research in the field of developmental
psychopathology has found that whether a child develops
pathology in the presence of adversity is related in some
way to the child’s emotional reactivity and his or her ability
to modulate and regulate this reactivity
Reactivity has been labeled alternately as vulnerability,
arousability, or threshold of tolerance prior to the
occurrence of adverse events or circumstances , Rothbart
and Derryberry (1981)
Emotional Reactivity
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According to Block’s theorizing, ego-resiliency is the ability
to adapt one’s level of control temporarily up or down as
circumstances dictate (Block, 2002; Block & Block, 1980).
Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain
mechanisms and plasticity. Davidson, Richard J.
American Psychologist, 55(11), Nov 2000,
1196-1214.
Cicchetti, D. & Tucker, D. (1994). Development and selfregulatory structures of the mind. Development and
Psychopathology, 6(4), 533–549.
Structure of the RSCA Three
Factor Model
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Personal Resiliency & Life Events
Mastery
Ability
Relatedness
Life Events
Reactivity
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Sense of Mastery
Self-Efficacy
Optimism
Ability
Adaptability
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SES
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Sense of Mastery: subscale
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Optimism consists of positive attitudes about
the world, life in general and about ones own
life specifically; and would refer specifically or
generalize to the future. Seligman (1998)
describes an optimistic attitude as
characterized by specific attribution styles.
“My life will be happy.”
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Sense of Mastery: subscale
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Self-efficacy: Problem solving attitudes and
strategies: seeing problems as challenges or puzzles to
be solved, having strategies for approaching problems.
sense that one can master one’s environment. Robert
White (1969) focused on the development of sense of
efficacy, mastery, or sense of competence as essential
in a child’s development. Bandura focused on Selfefficacy as well.
“I am good at figuring things out.”
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Sense of Mastery: subscale
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Adaptability: flexibility or adapting to
change, being personally receptive to
criticism and learning from one’s
mistakes.
“I can learn from my mistakes.”
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Sense of Relatedness
Basic Trust
Social Support
Comfort
Tolerance of Differences
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copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
Sense of Relatedness
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Basic Trust: as represented in this scale may be defined
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Social Support: These items were designed to tap the
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Comfort with others or social ease: These items
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Tolerance of difference: These items were designed
as the degree to which others are reliable and the degree
to which one can be authentic in these relationships.
degree to which the individual believes he or she has
others to which he can turn for support in dealing with
adversity.
were designed to tap comfort with others that may buffer
stressors in his or her life.
to tap the degree to which the individual believes that he
or she can safely express difference within a relationship.
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copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
Sense of Relatedness –
Subscale items
“I can trust others.”
“There are people who love and care about
me.”
“I feel calm with people.”
“I can make up with friends after a fight.”
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Emotional Reactivity
Impairment
Sensitivity
Recovery
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Emotional Reactivity component
subscales
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Sensitivity: Emotional Sensitivity as defined in this scale
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Recovery time: Emotional recovery as defined in this
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Impairment: Items ask the child to report the frequency
is threshold for reaction and the intensity of the reaction.
Items ask the child to assess “how easy it is for (him) to get
upset” and how upset he gets
scale is the ability to bounce back from emotional arousal or
disturbance of ones emotional equilibrium.
with which some impairment occurs related to being upset.
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Emotional Reactivity Items
“It is easy for me to get upset.”
“When I get upset, I stay upset for the
whole day.”
“When I get upset, I don’t think clearly.”
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The Resiliency Scales for Children
and Adolescents
Instrument Development
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How do we assess personal
resiliency?
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Identify core areas of personal resiliency.
Develop tools for assessing/quantifying core
areas of personal resiliency.
Developing method for standardizing scores
yielded by these tools.
Develop methods for summarizing these
standardized scores.
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Guidelines for Developing Tools for
Assessing Core Areas of Resiliency
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Provide brief, (8 to 15 minutes), easy to administer
measures to assess critical aspects of personal resiliency.
Designed in a way:
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that are easily understood by children and adolescents
and translated into interventions
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so that they provide a common metric that may be used
across populations and circumstances.
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that they provide base-rates for assessment of event
impact, outcome of intervention and changes that
occur over time.
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Resiliency Scales Design
Three 20 – 24 item self-report questionnaires. (each addressing
different developmental process.)
Written at a 3th grade reading level. (easily understood)
Response options are ordered on a 5 point Likert scale ranging
from 0(never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3(often), 4 (almost
always). (provide measurement on continuum).
Standardized on normative samples stratified by parent education
level and race/ethnicity within age and gender groups, using T
score metric; norms available by gender within age-band; 9 – 11,
12 – 14, 15 - 18
Develop ways to summarize the relationship of multiple
dimensions with each other; Personal Resiliency Profile and Index
scores.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
RSCA information reported
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Three global resiliency scale scores: Sense of
Mastery, Sense of Relatedness and Emotional
Reactivity. (T score), mean =T50, SD= 10
Ten subscale scores. (scale scores) mean=10,
SD=3
Individual items within each subscale for inquiry
Personal Resiliency Profiles: Global scale and
subscale level
Two summary Index scores: Resource Index and
Vulnerability Index T scores
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Resiliency Scale T score Ranges
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Personal Resiliency Profile
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A graphic way to illustrate three scale scores
simultaneously.
A way to show the inter-relatedness of three
aspects of resiliency for individual or group.
Way to compare relative resiliency across
individuals and groups.
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Personal Resiliency Profile
70
60
50
Bobby
40
Linda
30
Joe
20
10
0
Mastery
Relatedness
Reactivity
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Resiliency Index Scores
summarizing
Resource and Vulnerability
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Resource Index Score
The estimate of the resources experienced by the child considering
both personal sense of mastery and sense of relatedness weighted
equally. This is based on the fact these two scores are highly
correlated.
Resource Raw total score = (Sense of Mastery T + Sense of Relatedness T)
2
Resource Index Score = Standardized Resource Raw Total Score
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Vulnerability Index Score
Standardized difference between the Emotional Reactivity Scale T
score and the Resource Index T Score.
Vulnerability Raw Score = Emotional Reactivity T Score
(-) Resource Index T score
Vulnerability Index T score = Vulnerability raw score
converted to T score by norm group
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RSCA Application: What can we do
with the information?
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Screening using RSCA Index Scores
Screening using Profile Analysis
Assessment Linked Interventions
Outcome Assessment
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Clinical Application
Three Tiered model for
Universal Screening
Using RSCA Index Scores
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Preventive Screening and
Identification
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Screening with the RSCA in larger groups requires
condensation of information into one or two summary
scores that act as red flags for further examination.
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Quantification of the Resiliency Profile using the Resource
and Vulnerability Index Scores
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Resource Index: Identify children who indicate low
personal Resources before they fall behind.
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Vulnerability Index: Identifying children who indicate high
Vulnerability with or without the emergence of symptoms.
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Population Based Screening
First tier: Screening for Vulnerability
Administer Resiliency Scales to entire group
(5-10 minutes)
Calculate Vulnerability Index Score for all students.
(software program available for scoring).
Those scoring T60 (high) or higher may be referred for
review, preventive intervention (Tier 2) and retest.
Those scoring T65 (very high) or higher may be referred
for mental health intervention (Tier 3).
.
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Second Tier:
If Vulnerability Index is high > T60 examine the
level of Emotional Reactivity
If Emotional Reactivity Score is T60 or higher, suggest psychoeducation related to management of emotional reactivity.
If Resource Index is Low
If Resource Index is T 40 or below examine Sense of Mastery
and Sense of Relatedness scale scores to determine area for
psycho-education.
Sense of Mastery < T40 enhance mastery
Sense of Relatedness < T40 enhance relatedness
Third Tier
If Vulnerability Index score is very high >T65
Referral for psychotherapy and/or medication evaluation
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RSCA Profile Analysis
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Cluster analysis based profiles of
normative sample
RSCA profiles by clinical diagnosis
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RSCA Profiles based on cluster analysis of
the normative standardization sample
age 9-18 n= 641
70
60
50
A 31%
B 44%
C 25%
40
30
20
10
0
MAS
REL
REA
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Clinical Group Resiliency Profiles
70
non
60
Anxiety
50
40
Depression
30
Conduct
20
Bipolar
10
0
Mastery
Relate
Reactivity
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
NonSpec
Major Points
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The RSCA three factor model boils personal resiliency down to core
developmental constructs for practical application.
The three factor model of Personal Resiliency is easier to link to
specific interventions related to mastery, relatedness and emotional
reactivity.
The Personal Resiliency Profile, Resource & Vulnerability Indexes
allow us to look at relationships between personal resiliency factors.
The Vulnerability Index estimates the discrepancy between youths
emotional reactivity risk and combined personal mastery and
relatedness resources.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
Selected RSCA references by author
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Prince-Embury, S. (2014). A Three Factor Model of Personal Resilience and Related
Assessment. In Prince-Embury, S. and Saklofske, D. (Eds.) Resilience Interventions
for Youth in Diverse Populations. New York: Springer.
Prince-Embury, S. (2013). Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents; Theory,
Research and Clinical Application. In Prince-Embury, S. and Saklofske, D. (Eds.)
Resilience in Children, Adolescent and Adults; Translating Research for Practice. New
York: Springer.
Prince-Embury, S. (2012). Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents; Constructs,
Research and Clinical Application. Chapter in Goldstein, S. and Brooks, R. (Eds.)
Handbook of Resilience in Children; Second Edition. New York: Springer.
Prince-Embury, S. (2011). Assessing personal resiliency in the school context using
the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents, Psychology in the Schools, 48 (7),
672-685.
Prince-Embury, S. Steer, R. (2010). Profiles of personal resiliency for normative and
clinical samples of children and adolescents using the Resiliency Scales for Children
and Adolescents. Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28 (4), 303-315.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
RSCA References Continued
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Prince-Embury, S., Courville, T. (2008). Comparison of a One, Two and
Three Factor Models of the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents.
The Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 23(1), 11-25.
Prince-Embury, S., Courville, T. (2008). Measurement Invariance of the
Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents across gender and age
cohorts. The Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 23(1), 26-40.
Prince-Embury, S. (2008). The Resiliency Scales for Children and
Adolescents, Psychological Symptoms and Clinical Status in Adolescents.
The Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 23(1), 41-56.
Prince-Embury, S. (2007). Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents:
Profiles of Personal Strength. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment, Inc.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
RSCA Reviews
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Prince-Embury, S., Saklofske, D. H., Veseley, A. (in press) Resiliency
Measures. Chapter in (Eds.) Boyle, G. & Saklofske, D. Measures of
Personality and Social Psychology Constructs. Elsevier Inc.
Sink, C. A., & Mvududu, N. G. (2009). A review of the Resiliency Scales for
Children and Adolescents. In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.) The 18th
Mental Measurements Yearbook. Omaha, NB: Buros Institute of Mental
Measurements, University of Nebraska Press.
Thorne, K. J., & Kohut, C. S. (2007). A review of Prince-Embury, S. (2007,
2006), Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents: A profile of personal
strengths, Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 22, 255-261
Venn, J. (2009). A review of the Resiliency Scales for Children and
Adolescents. In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.). Eighteenth Mental
Measurements Yearbook, Lincoln, NB: Buros Institute.
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury
Author Contact information:
Three Factor Theory of Personal Resiliency
Sandra Prince-Embury, Ph.D.
Resiliency Institute of Allenhurst
E-mail:
sandraprince-embury@earthlink.net
Phone: 732-272-3773
copyright 2014 Prince-Embury