The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents,Psychological Symptoms,and Clinical Status in Adolescents

Abstract

The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA) are three scales for assessing the relative strength of three aspects of personal resiliency as a profile in children and adolescents. This article presents preliminary evidence to support the use of the RSCA in preventive screening. First, this article examines associations between the RSCA Global scale and index scores and psychological symptoms as assessed by the Beck Youth Inventory—II in a normative sample of adolescents. A normative sample was chosen as screening would presumably occur in a nonclinical setting. Findings suggest associations between psychological symptoms and the RSCA scale and index scores. Specifically, positive associations were found between psychological symptoms and the RSCA Vulnerability Index and the Emotional Reactivity scale score. Negative associations were found between psychological symptoms and the RSCA Resource Index, Sense of Mastery, and Sense of Relatedness scale scores. Second, the RSCA is examined as a potential predictor of clinical status differentiating the normative sample from a clinical sample. Results support the use of the RSCA in screening protocols for the identification of vulnerability that does not rely on the presence of an identified disorder or clearly defined psychological symptoms.

Les Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA), constituées de trois échelles, servent à évaluer la force relative de trois aspects de la résilience personnelle en tant que profil chez les enfants et les adolescents. Nous présentons ici des données préliminaires qui soutiennent l'emploi des RSCA lors de dépistages préventifs. Dans un premier temps, nous examinons, dans un échantillon normatif d'adolescents, des associations entre l'échelle globale des RSCA et des symptômes psychologiques établis selon l'Inventaire Beck-II pour adolescents. Notre choix a porté sur un groupe normatif, car le dépistage se ferait probablement dans un cadre non clinique. Les résultats suggèrent des associations entre les symptômes psychologiques et les scores sur l'échelle et les index des RSCA. Plus précisément, on note des associations positives entre les symptômes et l'index de Vulnérabilité et le score de l'échelle de Réactivité émotionnelle des RSCA. Des associations négatives apparaissent entre les symptômes psychologiques et l'index de Ressource, l'échelle du Sens de la maîtrise et celle du Sens de connexion des RSCA. Dans un deuxième temps, nous évaluons les RSCA en tant que prédicteurs potentiels de l'état clinique, pour différencier un échantillon normatif d'un groupe clinique. Les résultats soutiennent l'emploi des RSCA dans les protocoles de dépistage destinés à identifier la vulnérabilité en l'absence d'un trouble identifié ou de symptômes psychologiques clairement définis.

Keywords

resiliency vulnerability psychological symptoms clinical status

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