Revision and validation of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale of coal miners in China

The psychological state of coal miners may have negative changes because of the long-term underground working environment and complex production process and will cause unsafe behaviour. Resilience can enhance the adaptability of individuals to high-risk and high-pressure environments and predict unsafe behaviour. However, currently little research has been done to develop resilience measuring tools for coal miners. Therefore, this paper revised and verified the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) among coal miners in China and developed an individual resilience scale available for the coal industry. Five hundred and twenty subject coal miners have finished the initial test, and the exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were used to revise the CD-RISC. Another survey on 639 samples was then conducted to assess a confirmatory factor analysis and test-retest reliability of the resilience scale. The resulting scale has two dimensions, tenacity and strength, including a collection of 6 items. This study assists in further exploring the structural factor of individual resilience level for China coal industry, and provides a new research idea for occupational health, and contributes to the safety management and sustainable development of the coal enterprises. • A reliable resilience scale has been revised and verified for Chinese coal miners based on the CD-RISC. • The resilience scale has two dimensions, tenacity and strength, based on six items. • This paper focuses on miners' psychological state and provides a new research idea for occupational health. • It contributes to the safety management and sustainable development of the coal mining industry.