Exploring Gender Equivalence and Bias in a Measure of Psychological Hardiness

One of the most pervasive criticisms found in the hardiness literature concern the question whether the construct is equally important for men and women. Using a multi-group confirmatory factor analytic approach, this question was explored from a more fundamental perspective by examining measurement equivalence across gender in a measure of hardiness, the 15-item Dispositional Resilience Scale [DRS-15; Bartone, P. T. (1995). A short hardiness scale. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, New York.]. Although results suggested some non-equivalence related to the control subscale, follow-up analyses examining gender bias in the two non-equivalent items showed that the effect of gender was minimal. The gender effects found indicated that women had a greater tendency to endorse these items compared to men. Given the stringent criteria used to test for equivalence and minimal evidence of bias found, it is concluded that the results largely point to equivalence across gender in the DRS-15.