Objective

To compare the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14) and the original 25-item scale (RS-25) in the obstetric population, including vulnerable and non-vulnerable women.

Methods

A Brazilian prospective cohort study was conducted of nulliparous singleton pregnant women from March 2018 to March 2020. Women who completed the RS-25 at 27–29 weeks of pregnancy were included in the analysis. RS-25 and RS-14 scores were converted to comparable scales of 0–100. Medians, standard deviations, and centiles between versions were compared for the general, vulnerable, and non-vulnerable populations. Correlation, concordance, and internal consistency and reliability analyses were performed. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

In total, 381 women who completed the RS-25 were included. Medians of RS-14 and RS-25 scores were significantly different (73.4 and 70.8, respectively; p<0.001), regardless of the vulnerability status. The RS-14 showed a high correlation (Pearson´s correlation coefficient of -0.379 (p-value<0.001), but no agreement (Pitman’s test of difference in variance: r= 0.422; P <0.001) with the RS-25 version. RS-14 showed high internal consistency and reliability with only one component (Variance of 59.82%, Cronbach´s Alpha 0.947).

Conclusion

The RS-14 may overestimate the RS-25 score and different domains may not be assessed by the short version. The psychometric properties of the RS-14 and the clinical relevance of the variation between versions require further evaluation.