Translation and Validation of the “Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire” for Iranian Families

Introduction: Resilience is the process by which families are able to maintain or regain positive outcomes despite stress and negative emotional experiences. Assessing family resilience is important to identify families’ strengths and vulnerabilities. There are currently no family resilience instruments available for Iranian families. This paper describes the translation and validation of Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (WFRQ) for being used with Iranian families. Method: The WFRQ was translated into Persian and back-translated. Proportional simple random sampling was used to recruit a representative sample of 350 families selected from a military center in 2017 in Tehran. Total scale and subscale reliability were examined using Cronbach alpha. Test- retest reliability was conducted with 350 adolescents who completed the WFRQ twice with a two-week interval in between and assessed using Intra-class Correlation Coefficients (ICC).  Results: Cronbach alpha coefficients were equal to or greater than 0.70 for all scales. Test-retest reliability for the overall WFRQ score was excellent (ICC = 0.83, 95%CI, 0.76–0.93) and very good for family belief system subscales (ICC = 0.70–0.79).  Conclusion: The present study provides evidence of good validity, reliability and test-retest reliability of the WFRQ for Iranian families. Further testing, including construct validity, and testing across different contexts will strengthen the evidence. The instrument will have applications in resilience research, educational and clinic settings and could facilitate the development and evaluation of intervention programs to build resilience in Iranian families.