An exploratory review of resiliency assessments after brain injury

Janna Griffioen; Nicole Gingrich; Courtney L Pollock; Julia Schmidt

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0292502

An exploratory review of resiliency assessments after brain injury

PLoS One. 2025 Jan 3;20(1):e0292502. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292502. eCollection 2025.

Authors

Janna Griffioen^{1

2}, Nicole Gingrich³, Courtney L Pollock^{1

4}, Julia Schmidt^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Rehabilitation Research Program, Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
² Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
³ GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
⁵ Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Abstract

Background: People with brain injury can have lower resiliency compared to the general public. Yet, resiliency facilitates positive processes to negotiate adversity after brain injury. Therefore, measuring resiliency after a brain injury is important.

Objective: The review aimed to (1) identify self-report resiliency outcome measures for use with people after acquired brain injury, using the process-based Traumatic Brain Injury Resiliency Model as the guiding conceptual framework, and (2) summarize the psychometric properties of the identified outcome measures and the utility of these measures in clinical rehabilitation.

Method: The COSMIN guidelines for systematic reviews were followed to ensure appropriate reporting for each measure. Databases CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, and PsychINFO were searched and independently reviewed by two people. Articles providing data on psychometric properties for measures of resilience for people with brain injury were retrieved. Psychometric properties and clinical utility (number of items, scoring details) were summarized.

Results: Thirty-two articles were retrieved, including nine measures of resiliency: Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Acquired Brain Injury, Confidence after Stroke Measure, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Daily Living Self-Efficacy Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Participation Strategies Self-Efficacy Scale, Resilience Scale, Robson Self-Esteem Scale, and the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. All measures have acceptable to excellent psychometric properties in accordance with the COSMIN guidelines.

Conclusion: There are established measures of resiliency in brain injury rehabilitation. Future work may explore use of these measures in a clinical context and implementation of rehabilitation goals for improving resiliency after brain injury.

Copyright: © 2025 Griffioen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Brain Injuries* / psychology
Brain Injuries* / rehabilitation
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / psychology
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / rehabilitation
Humans
Psychometrics* / methods
Resilience, Psychological*
Self Efficacy
Self Report
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research – Scholar award (Pollock) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council - Project grant (Schmidt). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.