FolioStart free
All scales

Brief Resilience Scale

BRS
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

A 6-item unidimensional scale measuring resilience in its original sense — the ability to bounce back or recover from stress.

Items
6
Response format
5-point Likert
Version
1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Resilience was measured with the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS; Smith et al., 2008), a 6-item measure with good internal consistency (α ≈ .85).

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Undergraduates and cardiac rehabilitation patients (Smith et al., 2008)
Test–retest
0.69
Cronbach's α
0.85

Response anchors

Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree

Known limitations

Measures recovery from stress rather than protective resources, so it is not interchangeable with resource-based resilience scales (e.g., the CD-RISC). Half the items are reverse-worded, which can introduce method effects.

Original citation

Smith, B. W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., Bernard, J. (2008). The Brief Resilience Scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(3), 194-200.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10705500802222972

Questions researchers ask

What does the BRS measure?

A 6-item unidimensional scale measuring resilience in its original sense — the ability to bounce back or recover from stress.

How many items does the BRS have?

The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) has 6 items.

Is the BRS free to use?

The BRS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the BRS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.85, test–retest reliability of 0.69. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the BRS, and how do I cite it?

Smith, B. W., Dalen, J., Wiggins, K., Tooley, E., Christopher, P., Bernard, J. (2008). The Brief Resilience Scale: Assessing the ability to bounce back. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(3), 194-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705500802222972

Reference only

Folio has verified the citation and methods metadata for this scale, but does not hold confirmed item wording or scoring to import into Surveyor.

Save BRS
Or track new research mentioning BRS as it publishes

Related scales

AUDITAlcohol Use Disorders Identification TestBAIBeck Anxiety InventoryBDI-IIBeck Depression Inventory-IIBSMASBergen Social Media Addiction ScaleBrief-COPEBrief-COPECES-DCenter for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale

Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.