1. Validation of
the Bidimensional Resilience Scale
for North American College Students
A Classification of the innate and acquired factors
July 2, 2014
Mari Hirano
Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo

2. Introduction
My awareness of the issue
Can every individual learn
resilience equally?
How can people with low
resilience by nature
smoothly acquire resilience ?
2

3. Review of resilience from the viewpoints
of innateness
 Association temperament and inherited biological
bases in personality
Personality
Temperament Character
Cloninger (1993)
3

4.  Bidimentional Resilience Scale (Hirano, 2010)
 Developed based on Cloninger’s theory
 21 items with a five-item scale ranging
Resilience factors
optimism control sociability vitality
attempt to
solve a
problem
self-
understan
ding
understa
nding
others
TCI
Temperament
NS .23 *** -.08 .13 * -.09 .02 .07 -.01
HA -.36 *** -.53 *** -.31 *** -.07 -.04 -.11 -.10
RD -.07 -.12* .15* .07 .14 * .04 -.04
PS .08 .07 .05 .40 *** .17 * .07 .13 *
Character
SD .08 -.07 .03 .16 * .27 *** .28*** .01
CO .08 .23*** .10 .20 ** .29 *** .06 .13
ST .07 ** -.02 .15 * .12 * .11 .12 .31 ***
strongly correlated
with temperament
strongly correlated
with character
4

5.  Bidimentional Resilience Scale (Hirano, 2010)
innate factors acquired factors
optimism
control
sociability
vitality
Attempting
to solve
a problem
self-
understanding
understanding
others
.86
.65
.91
.62
.79
.80
.72
.76
strongly correlated
with temperament
strongly correlated
with character
GFI = .919
AGFI = .897
RMSEA = .061
5

6.  Validation: twin method (Hirano, 2011)
 Innate factors:
Correlation was seen among the MZ twins,
while the DZ twins did not show any correlation
 Acquired factors:
Significant correlation was seen among both MZ
and DZ twins
MZ (41 pairs) DZ (15 pairs) difference
in the ICC
between
MZ and DZ
ICC 95%CI ICC 95%CI
innate factors .67 *** .46 - .81 .07 -.43 - .54 p<.05
acquired factors .56 *** .32 - .74 .80 ** .51 - .93 n.s.
6

7.  Validation: longitudinal research (Hirano, 2012)
 The temporal stability was confirmed.
 People who had experienced more positive life events
in achievement domains tended to have higher scores
on acquired factors.
innate
factors
(Time1)
acquired
factors
(Time1)
innate
factors
(Time2)
acquired
factors
(Time2)
negative events in interpersonal domains -.14 -.06 -.09 -.01
negative events in achievement domains -.06 -.22 -.14 -.14
positive events in interpersonal domains .08 .16 .01 .10
positive events in achievement domains .21 .24 .09 .26 *
7

8.  Relationship between innate/acquired factors and
psychological sensitivity (Hirano, 2012b)
(Highly Sensitive Person; HSP; Aron, 1997)
 psychologically
sensitive people had
low-innate factors.
 In contrast, no relation
between sensitivity
and acquired factors.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
非敏感群 中間群 敏感群
資質的レジリエンス要因 獲得的レジリエンス要因
non-sensitive highly sensitivemedian
innate factors acquired factors
8

9. The applicability of
the BRS English version
in North American students
9

10. Method
North American Students
 November, 2013
 350 college students
 Mean age=21.2 years (SD=2.58)
 filled out online the BRS English version
.
 Comparative data: Japanese Students
 October, 2008
 433 university and college students
 Mean age=20.7 years (SD=4.05)
 administered during class time
10

11. Result
The bidimensional structure was confirmed
(GFI=.900, AGFI=.873, RMSEA=.045)
High internal reliability
(total scale; α=.88, subscale; α=.82, .76)
innate factors acquired factors
optimism
control
sociability
vitality
attempting to
solve a problem
self-
understanding
understanding
others
11

12.  North American students showed higher resilience
score compared with Japanese students.
12

13. Conclusions
A two-dimensional resilience scale (BRS) of strong
innate and strong acquired characteristics was
developed to design methods of heightening
acquired resilience.
The applicability of the BRS English version in
North American students was confirmed.
13

14. Subsequent discussion
Do they have only to learn ‘acquired factors’ ?
Acquired factors do not have an effect as
much as innate factors have. (Hirano, 2012)
How can people with low
resilience by nature
smoothly acquire resilience ?
14

15. from the analysis of description…
by themselves with others
innate factors acquired factors
15

16. 16
1. I think that things will work out on most occasions in any case.
2. I am good at preserving friendships since I was a child.
3. I understand my personality well.
4. I think that things will work out finally even if I have no confidence.
5. It is good to be intimate with another person.
6. When I am faced with unpleasant situations, I try to gain
something from those experiences.
7. I often fail to understand my own feelings or thoughts.
8. I have enough stamina.
9. I value working hard.
10. I am good at detecting others’ feelings or changes in facial
expressions.
11. I can handle difficult experiences well.
12. I can carry out decisions through to the end.
13. I treat someone with consideration.
14. I think that I can wriggle out when faced with a difficult problem.
15. I am an outgoing person and have a wide circle of friends.
16. When misunderstandings arise with others, I willingly have
more talks.
17. I understand how unpleasant things influence my feelings.
18. When I am faced with unpleasant situations, I try to gather
information to solve the problem.
19. I can control my feelings even if there is a disagreement.
20. I think I have perseverance.
21. I am good at understanding others' ways of thinking.

17. Reference
• Aron, E. N. (1997). The Highly Sensitive Person. New York: Broadway
Books.
• Cloninger, C. R. (1993). A psychobiological model of temperament and
character. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 975–990.
• Hirano, M. (2010). A study of the classification of resilience factors:
development of the Bidimensional Resilience Scale (BRS). The
Japanese Journal of Personality, 19, 94–106.
• Hirano, M. (2011). Validity of the Bidimensional Resilience Scale for
junior high and high school students: an analysis using the twin
method. The Japanese Journal of Personality, 20, 50–52.
• Hirano, M. (2012a). The Relationship between the Bidimensional
Resilience Scale and Life Events. The Japanese Journal of Personality,
21, 94–97.
• Hirano, M. (2012b). The Buffer Effect of Resilience on Psychological
Sensitivity: Can Acquired Resilience Redeem Innate Vulnerability?.
The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 60, 343–354. 17