Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale - 10 (CD-RISC-10)
What it is
The CD-RISC-10 is a 10-item self-report measure of psychological resilience — the ability to cope with, adapt to, and recover from adversity, stress, trauma, and hardship. It is a psychometrically refined version of the original 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), developed by Campbell-Sills and Stein (2007) through factor analysis of the longer scale.
The CD-RISC-10 is unidimensional, assessing resilience as a single construct. It has demonstrated good reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical populations, including trauma survivors, patients in treatment for PTSD, and community samples.
How is it used
- Suitable for adults aged 18 and over
- Takes approximately 2–5 minutes to complete
- Can be used at baseline and follow-up to monitor resilience over time or in response to treatment
- Provides a broad measure of adaptive capacity rather than condition-specific symptoms
- Permission to use the scale must be obtained from the CD-RISC website before administration
What do the scores mean?
Each item is rated on a five-point scale from 0 (not true at all) to 4 (true nearly all the time), giving a total score range of 0 to 40. Higher scores indicate greater resilience.
Normative data from a community survey of 764 US adults found:
- Mean score: 31.8 (SD = 5.4)
- 25th percentile: 29
- 50th percentile (median): 32
- 75th percentile: 36
There are no diagnostic cut-off scores — the CD-RISC-10 is best interpreted by comparing an individual's score to population norms or tracking change over time. Lower scores are consistently associated with higher levels of PTSD symptoms, depression, and perceived stress; higher scores are associated with better psychological functioning and wellbeing.
Developer
The original 25-item CD-RISC was developed by Connor and Davidson (2003). The 10-item version was derived and validated by Campbell-Sills and Stein (2007).
References:
Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18(2), 76–82.
Campbell-Sills, L., & Stein, M. B. (2007). Psychometric analysis and refinement of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC): Validation of a 10-item measure of resilience. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20(6), 1019–1028.
Campbell-Sills, L., Forde, D. R., & Stein, M. B. (2009). Demographic and childhood environmental predictors of resilience in a community sample. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43(12), 1007–1012.