Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mahsa Yarelahi ^{1, 2}
• Nasim Pirzadeh ²
• Mahin Nazari ³
• Abdolrahim Asadollahi ^{4, 5}

¹ Department of Gerontology, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Health Promotion and Gerontology, Faculty of Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

³ Department of Health Promotion, Faculty of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

⁴ Department of Health Promotion and Gerontology, Faculty of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

⁵ Middle East Longevity Institute in Abyad Medical Centre, Azmi Street, Abdo Center, Tripoli, Lebanon

Abstract

Background: Widowhood is an unwonted stage after married life accompanied by emotional and physical stress. Resilience plays an important role in coping with widowhood, but there is no appropriate instrument to help measure resilience among the Iranian population. Hence, the objective of the present study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the widowhood resilience scale (WRS, 25-Items).
Methods: In a psychometric study, 352 Iranian widows were randomly selected; then, the WRS, Loneliness, general resilience, and demographic questionnaire were used to gather data. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used to extract the factors using IBM-SPSS version 24 and AMOS version 24.
Results: The mean ages of 352 participants were 65.7±9.8, and the highest frequency of education level was no formal schooling (42.6%). The construct validity of WRS based on Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the six subscales explained a total of 85.35 % of the variance. The convergent validity of the WRS 25-items was compared to Iranian versions of UCLA-Loneliness (0.71) and CD‐RISC (0.78) as well (P<0.01). The WRS scale demonstrated excellent reliability and Cronbach’s alpha obtained 0.94 for the entire scale (P<0.001). The optimal cut-off point that best differentiates between resilient and non-resilient widows was 55, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 74.4%.
Conclusion: Based on the results, the Persian version of the WRS is a valid and reliable tool that can be utilized to measure widows’ resilience. However, further investigations are suggested.

Keywords

• Middle Aged, Psychological, Psychometrics, Resilience, Widowhood
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