Community Resilience Scale: Analysis of Psychometric Aspects and Relationships with Criminal Victimization in Mexican University Students

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the psychometric characteristics of the Community Resilience Scale (CRS, Ruiz, 2015) in two non-random samples (total n=2500) of university students from three Mexican cities. Method: The study was divided into 2 samples. Study 1 is a psychometric approach to determine the internal and factorial reliability of the Community Resilience Scale (CRS) in a sample of n=1007 Mexican university students. In Study 2, the sample was comprised of 1525 Mexican students from the same cities and institutions as those in sample 1. Results: In the first sample high internal reliability was found in the scale statistic, with three items being excluded. A factor solution comprising three dimensions was found: coping, humor and creativity, and collective-self-esteem, with suitable adjustment indices, replicated in a confirmatory analysis with the second sample. Moreover, it was found that a) the more victimization events, the lower the levels of community resilience, and b) the greater the collective humor, the lower the inclination to change place of residence and work. Conclusions: Results are discussed in relation to previous studies with the CRS and the impact of violence on the social fabric.