Assessing Reliability of Resiliency Belief Scale (RBS) in the Malaysian Contex

Abstract

Resilient person has the ability to tolerate pain, has self-respect, ability to bounce back, ability to make friends, has freedom to depend on others and person-environment fit [4; 9]. Therefore, resiliency is related to the individual quality or strength that increases his/her ability to withstand adversity [11]. This paper makes an attempt to test empirically the measurement/CFA model of adolescent resiliency using structural equation modeling (SEM). The adolescents' conceptions of resiliency measured such dimensions as active skills, future orientation, risk taking and independence. This study was done based on a total sample of 308 secondary school students from east-coast of peninsular Malaysia. Cross-validation was done using samples of 308 students. The Resiliency Belief Scales (Mrazek andMrazek) which was adapted from [25], was used in this study. The instrument consisted of 45 items and the items were hypothesized a priori to have non-zero loadings on all dimensions in the model. Analysis of the items resulted in a well-fitting model (χ² = 1.327; df = 1; GFI = .998; CFI = .996; TLI= .995; p = .35; Hoelter = 395; RMSEA = .03).