Resilience among Indian Adolescents: A Multi-Group Study

Resilience is the individual’s ability to overcome adversity and successfully adapt to any situation. Adolescence is challenging since a child is in a transitory developmental phase. The current study validated two resilience scales in Hindi and English languages (Child and Youth Resilience Measure; CYRM; Ungar & Liebenberg, 2013 & The Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire; ARQ; Gartland et al, 2011) and explored the effect of socio-demographic variables on adolescents’ resilience from four North Indian states. Convergent validity was established with Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS; Stewart-Brown & Janmohamed, 2008). A total of 1294 (Females = 640, Males = 654) adolescents in age range of 12-19 years (Mean= 15.27 years; SD=1.08) who voluntarily participated in the study; Delhi (N=355; Females=167, Males=188), Haryana (N=297; Females=148, Males=149), Uttar Pradesh (N=297; Females=159, Males=138) and Rajasthan (N=345; Females=166, Males=179). Results confirmed the construct validity of both the resilience scales. A multi-group CFA for languages was computed to establish the configural invariance, results of which indicated that construct validity was same for both the languages. Convergent validity for both the resilience scales was computed. Results of convergent validity demonstrated that context, individual and caregiver dimensions of CYRM and individual, family, peers and school dimensions of ARQ correlated positively with WEMWBS. Multivariate analysis indicated that females were more resilient with peers as compared to males, private school adolescents possessed better resilience as compared to government school adolescents and those residing in urban areas possessed better individual resilience as compared to those staying in rural areas. Place of residence (state) affected contextual resilience, individual resilience, caregiver resilience and resilience at school. Further, the post hoc tests for the states indicated that contextual resilience, individual resilience and caregiver resilience scores were significantly higher in Rajasthani adolescents as compared to adolescents from other states. Delhi adolescents possessed the least resilience scores across all four states. Resilience at school was better among Haryanvi adolescents as compared to adolescents from remaining states. These results highlight not only the cultural diversity and its effect on resilience but also indicate that adaptation and validation of models is essential.