An Exploratory Review of Assessments of Resiliency after Acquired Brain Injury

Research Objectives: To identify measures of resiliency for use with people after acquired brain injury.

Individuals with acquired brain injury live with long-term effects impacting cognitive, physical, and psychosocial function. As such, one’s ability to participate in daily life and return to meaningful pre-injury roles can be impacted. The recently developed Traumatic Brain Injury Resiliency Model, describes how the ability to acknowledge and accept one's condition and resolve to meaningfully move forward in life may be a protective factor against negative outcomes. The Traumatic Brain Injury Resiliency Model encompasses supporting constructs of acceptance, self-efficacy and self-confidence. Despite the importance of cultivating resiliency in rehabilitation and associated positive long-term outcomes after acquired brain injury, there is limited understanding of how to best assess resiliency.

Design: Databases CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, and PsychINFO were searched. Articles that provided data on psychometric properties for measures for resiliency, acceptance, self-efficacy, and self-confidence for people with acquired brain injury were retrieved; psychometric properties were summarized.

Setting: All settings were included in our search of the literature.

Participants: Participants in our search included adults with acquired brain injury.

Interventions: n/a

Main Outcome Measures: n/a

Results: Thirty-three articles revealed 10 measures of resiliency, acceptance, self-efficacy, and self-confidence after acquired brain injury. Nine domain-specific measures were retrieved which assessed confidence or self-efficacy for a specific task. Measures obtained in this review were limited in ability to conceptualize self-efficacy, self-confidence, and acceptance as they relate to resiliency.

Conclusions: Measures varied in their generalizability to a variety of subpopulations based on age, stage in recovery, and diagnosis within acquired brain injury. Future research is needed to establish resiliency measures in rehabilitation practice with greater emphasis on resiliency as a goal for rehabilitation.

Author(s) Disclosures: No disclosures to report.