Validation of the Slovenian versions of Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12 and Brief Resilience Scale among youth

Urška Smrke; Ana Rehberger; Sara Močnik; Tanja Špes; Izidor Mlakar; Nejc Plohl

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1467174

Validation of the Slovenian versions of Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12 and Brief Resilience Scale among youth

Front Psychol. 2025 Feb 19:16:1467174. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1467174. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Urška Smrke¹, Ana Rehberger¹, Sara Močnik^{1

2}, Tanja Špes³, Izidor Mlakar¹, Nejc Plohl^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Digital Signal Processing, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
² Unit for Paediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry, Division of Paediatrics, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
³ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.

Abstract

Introduction: Resilience is the ability to adapt positively in the face of adversity, trauma, or significant stress and is a vital component of maintaining mental health and well-being. It is particularly shaped in young adulthood by navigating unique stressors, such as changes in living arrangements, relationships, and education. However, much of the existing research focuses on children or older adults, leaving a gap in our knowledge regarding resilience in young adulthood. Moreover, the existing resilience scales are seldom validated outside of English-speaking contexts. With this paper, we turn attention to validating two resilience measures, Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12 (CYRM-12) and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), in Slovenian language, using a sample of young adults.

Method: We administered a survey among 330 young individuals (18-24 years) from Slovenia. Next to the central questionnaires, we also measured resilience with another scale, along with coping strategies, anxiety, depression, and quality of life.

Results: For both resilience scales, one-factor structures fitted the data well and both scales demonstrated good internal consistency. CYRM-12 and BRS showed positive associations with another resilience scale and adaptive coping strategies, negative associations with anxiety, depression, and maladaptive coping strategies, and a unique contribution to predicting quality of life (with CYRM-12 demonstrating somewhat greater predictive value for quality of life than BRS), pointing to good convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity, respectively.

Discussion: The results of our study suggest that CYRM-12 and BRS are both sufficiently reliable and valid for use among Slovenian young adults, with slightly stronger evidence supporting the validity of CYRM-12 compared to BRS.

Keywords: BRS; CYRM-12; resilience; validation; young adults.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was partially funded by the project ‘SMILE: Supporting mental health in young people: Integrated methodology for clinical decisions and evidence-based interventions’ that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (GA No. 101080923). The content of this paper does not reflect the official opinions of the funders or any other institution. The responsibility for the information and views expressed herein lies entirely with the authors.