Exploring Cross-Cultural Resilience: Rasch Rating Scale Analysis of the 10-Item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale in an International Sample

Abstract

This study examined the psychometric properties of the English version of the 10-item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale using the Rasch Rating Scale model in a sample of 177 international students and scholars at a U.S. university. The Connor-Davison Resilience Scale was developed to measure individual differences in psychological resilience. Previous studies using item response theory (IRT) approaches to evaluate the scale have not yet considered potential differences in psychometric properties related to participants’ ethnicities and cultures. Thus, this study extended prior investigations by examining possible violations of measurement invariance across participants’ demographic characteristics at the item level using the Rasch rating scale model. Although the CD-RISC-10 demonstrated adequate person separation reliability, visual inspection of individual ratings and the variable map indicates that some participants provided extreme and inconsistent responses. Moreover, the CD-RISC-10 had an apparent ceiling effect, and one item showed differential item functioning across gender groups. Altogether, the results suggest that the English CD-RISC-10 shows adequate psychometric properties within a sample of international participants in the U.S. However, continued research is needed to determine how population differences may affect performance on the instrument and to develop items capable of measuring a broader range of psychological resilience.