Abstract

Adolescent resilience after a disaster has been shown to be a protective factor against loss, trauma, and psychological distress. Its importance for successful disaster recovery is widely accepted by disaster risk management professionals, yet very few tools are available to assess adolescent resilience during an emergency or after a natural disaster has occurred. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire designed to measure adolescents' resilience before, during or after a natural disaster. This mixed method study was carried out in three phases involving item generation, systematic review (phase one), qualitative analysis (phase two) and the reduction of items (phase three). The psychometric evaluation of the Adolescents' Resilience in Disaster Tool (ARDT) was conducted using the data from 599 high school students North of Iran (Golestan Province). The initial item pool included 80 items that were reduced to 37 after assessment of validity (face, content and structure) and reliability. Exploratory Factor Analysis found five factors that affect adolescents' resilience which included helping, trusting in God and hopefulness, adaptability, self-confidence and social support. The internal consistency was desirable (alpha = .86 and ICC = .91; 95 CI:.849 to.948). The psychometric support for the 37-item version of the ARDT in this study indicates strong support for the ARDT-Q37 as a rapid assessment tool to evaluate resilience in adolescents aged 12-18 years old. Identifying the status of adolescents' resilience and determining their level of need for intervention during and after a natural disaster is critical for long-and short-term outcomes. Implications for policy makers and professionals involved in the preparedness, response and recovery from natural disasters are discussed.