Validating Resilience at University Scale with Future Civil Engineering and Construction Professionals
Publication: Journal of Management in Engineering
Volume 38, Issue 5
Abstract
Given the potential high-stress work environments in civil engineering and construction, many industry stakeholders are recognizing employee well-being as a critical component of improved safety compliance and productivity. Employee resilience is an important protective factor for mental health that can assist employees as they navigate workplace stressors. Accurately measuring resilience in university students can help educators understand how to better equip future civil engineering and construction professionals with tools they need to handle the high demands of practice. The Resilience at University (RAU) scale has been developed for students in higher education; however, validation has yet to occur within a graduate student sample and in the United States. To help address this shortcoming, validation of the RAU scale was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a sample of graduate civil engineering and building construction students from the United States. Analysis identified a 15-item multidimensional measure of resilience comprising five factors: managing stress, maintaining perspective, building networks, staying healthy, and finding your calling. The results indicate evidence of discriminant validity for the RAU with a graduate student population. This research is a first step toward understanding resilience measurement in graduate students with implications for educators who want to support the well-being of future industry professionals in civil engineering, construction, and academia.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation for supporting this work under the CAREER Grant Nos. EEC-1351156 and 1911881. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Marissa Lang for her support in data collection of this study.
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Journal of Management in Engineering
Volume 38 • Issue 5 • September 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jun 30, 2021
Accepted: Apr 22, 2022
Published online: Jun 28, 2022
Published in print: Sep 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Nov 28, 2022
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