ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Reconceptualizing English Language Learning Resilience from Positive Psychology: Scale Development and Psychometric Validation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Neusoft Institute of Guangdong, Foshan, China
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Background: Resilience, a central construct in positive psychology, plays a crucial role in helping language learners cope with and grow from the challenges inherent in English language learning. However, few systematically validated instruments are available to assess resilience within this specific context. To address this gap, the present study developed and validated the English Language Learning Resilience Scale. Methods: Data were collected from 617 Chinese university students. The internal structure of the scale was examined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, followed by measurement invariance testing. Additionally, the graded response model was applied to evaluate the psychometric properties of individual items. Results: Results of factor analysis identified five protective factors—value, perseverance, emotion regulation, social support, and self-efficacy—demonstrating satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the scale showed scalar measurement invariance across gender, age, and academic discipline, indicating its structural stability across diverse subgroups. Complementing these findings, item response theory analyses provided additional evidence of strong item discrimination, appropriate difficulty parameters, and high measurement precision. Conclusion: Theoretically, the study reconceptualizes resilience in language learning through the lens of positive psychology, offering a more nuanced understanding of its dimensions and functions. Practically, the scale offers educators a diagnostic tool for identifying learners with lower resilience and implementing targeted interventions to strengthen their capacity to adapt, persist, and thrive in the face of linguistic challenges, thereby promoting both their language learning success and overall psychological well-being.
Keywords: Positive Psychology, Resilience scale, Measurement invariance, Psychometric validation, language learning
Received: 15 Aug 2025; Accepted: 18 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yin, Chen and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhiqing Lin, linzq2023@163.com
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