Revista Internacional de Saúde Mental e Psiquiatria

Exploration of the Psychometric Properties and Correlates of the 10 item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale among Family Caregivers of Nigerian Patients with Psychiatric Disorder

Olutayo Aloba, Olayinka Ajao, Sanmi Akinsulore, Boladale Mapayi, Taiwo Alimi, Olufemi Esan

Background: Despite studies in developed countries repeatedly reporting on the positive influence of resilience on the ability of family caregivers to withstand the burden of providing care for their relatives no literature is currently available regarding the construct and the factors associated with resilience among the family caregivers of Nigerian psychiatric patients.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study in which 234 family caregiver-patient dyads were consecutively recruited over a period of 6 months from the psychiatric outpatients’ clinics of two university teaching hospitals in South-western Nigeria. The caregivers completed the 10 item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC-10) in addition to other measures. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the dimensionality of the scale. The scale’s reliability and validity were also examined.

Results: Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a uni-dimensional model of the 10 item CD-RISC among the family caregivers. Internal consistency of the scale’s items was modestly satisfactory (Cronbach’s alpha 0.87). The evidence for the convergent validity of scale was provided by statistically significant correlations with the family caregivers’ scores on the Zarit Burden Interview (r =0.276, p<0.001), MINI Suicidality module (r=0.312, p<0.001), General Health Questionnaire-12 (r =0.220, p<0.001) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (r=0.282, p<0.001). Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that, the main variance in the family caregivers’ score on the CDRISC-10 was accounted for by the MINI Suicidality module.

Conclusions: The scale has exhibited satisfactory psychometric qualities as a tool for the assessment of resilience among the family caregivers of Nigerian patients with psychiatric disorders in terms of its reliability and validity. Our study further affirms that the construct of resilience measured with the 10 item CDRISC is best explained by a one dimensional factor.