ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 constructs the methodological foundation of the book. Empirical phenomena in this book are both qualitatively and quantitatively examined. This chapter, however, comes to grips with the conundrum of measuring resilience. The chapter critically reviews different approaches to the measurement of child and youth resilience. Specifically, the chapter engages in a set of important methodological questions: Is child and youth resilience better measured indirectly through the evaluation of negative and positive outcomes? Or is it better measured directly as a construct in its own right? Can it be measured in the absence of adversity? Or does it have to be measured against adverse conditions? How to take into account context and culture when measuring child and youth resilience? Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multi-Group Analysis, the chapter validates the psychometric robustness and the measurement invariance of the 12-item measurement model used to gauge the resilience of floating children and left-behind children. The chapter concludes with methodological implications for evaluating the resilience process of floating children and left-behind children and for studying child and youth resilience in general.
