The Resilience Factor: Levels and Sources of an Attribute Among Males With a Felony or Prison Record

Hardships associated with reentry and employment for justice-involved persons have been increasingly viewed through the lens of resilience. However, despite the growing appeal of this concept in this research, there is much that remains to be seen in its application. A specific area of deficiency concerns knowledge of the levels and sources of resilience. The current study investigates these aspects of resilience in a sample of 179 males on community supervision with a felony or prison record. Levels of resilience are measured using the Brief Resilience Scale, which defines resilience as the ability to bounce back or recover from stress. Ordinary Least Squares regression is used to investigate sources of that resilience, based on socio-demographic variables and factors deemed as contributors to resilience in the broader research. The implications of these findings for adaptive behavior and the role of criminal justice in building resilience are discussed.