• Gema T Ruiz-Párraga, Alicia E López-Martínez, Rosa Esteve, Carmen Ramírez-Maestre, and Gail Wagnild.
• Universidad de Málaga, Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Málaga, Spain.
• Qual Life Res. 2015 May 1;24(5):1245-53.

PurposeRecent attention has focused on resilience as an important process in the experience and management of chronic pain. In this context, resilience is considered as a psychological factor that promotes adaptive responses to pain and pain-related life adversities. Current research suggests that it is a relevant variable in the prediction of pain adjustment among chronic pain patients. Recently, it was adapted the Resilience Scale to patients suffering chronic musculoskeletal pain (RS-18). The aims of this study were to confirm the internal structure of the RS-18 and to present new empirical evidence regarding its validity.MethodsA sample of 592 patients with chronic musculoskeletal back pain completed a battery of instruments to assess resilience, anxiety sensitivity, catastrophizing, fear-avoidance beliefs, hypervigilance, pain acceptance, and pain adjustment variables (pain intensity, emotional distress, functional impairment, and daily functioning).ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis supported the validity of the RS-18 and a single-factor solution. A series of moderated multiple regression analysis showed that resilience is a relevant psychological variable that not only independently predicts better pain adjustment, but also moderates the relationships between several psychological pain-related variables and pain adjustment variables.ConclusionsThese findings give empirical support to the consideration of resilience as a protective variable in chronic pain adjustment and highlight the consideration that improving resilient behaviour could be an important target for the treatment of pain patients.

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