Psychometric properties of the “Inventario de Resiliencia” in an adult Mexican Origin population living in the southwest United States

Latino/as in the US face disadvantages related to the social-ecological environment in which they live, contributing to poor physical and mental health outcomes. Despite these challenges, Latino/as demonstrate protective factors that may buffer the effects of a high stress burden and lead to more positive health outcomes. Resilience measurements can often lack cultural specificity, a critical component to understanding social mechanisms that may contribute to health in this population. This study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the Inventario de Resiliencia (IRES), a Spanish-language resilience instrument developed in Mexico. The study utilized data from a community-based-participatory research study in the border town of South Yuma, Arizona (N = 282). Resilience was measured at time points over one year, alongside assessments of self-rated health, social connectedness, psychological distress, and perceived ecological stress. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed at each time point to confirm the latent structure of resilience. To assess whether participants responded similarly to the IRES over time, a confirmatory factor analytic model was used to test for the invariance of factor covariance, mean, and residual variance structures across the time points. Cronbach’s Alpha, Pearson product-moment and Kendall’s Tau correlations were used to assess construct validity, and reliability. Findings demonstrated that IRES has excellent internal consistency, the structure of the original scale fit well with the data, and the IRES exhibited strong invariance across time. Test-retest reliability and construct validity were established by convergent and discriminant validity. This study establishes and supports the use of the IRES as a reliable and valid tool for measuring resilience in U.S. Latino/a populations. These findings underscore the importance of culturally tailored instruments in research and suggest that a more nuanced understanding of resilience can be leveraged to inform interventions and policies aimed at reducing health disparities in minority populations.