Use and psychometric properties of the Flourishing Scale among adults with spinal cord injury.

Purpose/objective: Despite increased interest in the topic of resilience in rehabilitation, there has been no psychometric investigation of the Flourishing Scale (FS) in a sample of adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). The present study examined the reliability, convergent validity, and factor structure of the FS. Research Method/Design: Data for this project were extracted from a larger study on happiness and quality of life after SCI. For this study, information was collected using a cross-sectional mail survey design of adults with SCI. More than 1,900 mail surveys were distributed and 641 were returned; however, only 472 of these were valid. Respondents were primarily White males and had either cervical or thoracic injuries. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the unidimensional structure of the FS.

Results: Descriptive statistics were not considerably different from prior studied samples. CFA supported a 1-factor structure with all 8 FS items loading on a single flourishing factor. The scale demonstrated good internal consistency. Convergent validity analysis indicated the FS factor was positively related to Satisfaction With Life Scale scores (r = .674; p < .001) and self-reported happiness (r = .639, p < .001).

Conclusions/implications: The total computed FS score appears to be a valid assessment measure for clinical and research use with SCI patients in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record