Validating Resilience at University Scale with Future Civil Engineering and Construction Professionals

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.