Translation and its Psychometric Characteristic of the Diabetes Strengths and Resilience Measure among Chinese Adolescents with type 1 Diabetes

Purpose: This study is designed to develop a Chinese version of the Diabetes Strengths and Resilience Measure for Adolescents (DSTAR-Teen) and evaluate its psychometric characteristics.

Design and methods: One hundred and twenty adolescents with type 1 diabetes (Mean age = 16.3 ± 5.1, 51.7% male, Mean HbA1c = 7.6 ± 2.2%) were enrolled from one national endocrine center in China. Participants were administered with the DSTAR-Teen and the related psychosocial instruments to evaluate the reliability and validity. The DSTAR-Teen was adapted into Chinese version prior to data collection.

Results: The Chinese DSTAR-Teen demonstrated adequate reliability (Cronbach's α coefficients = 0.90, intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.98). A minimum detectable change at the 95% confidence level was 5.8 points. In exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses, a three-factor structure emerged with a variance of 67.4%, demonstrating construct validity. Moreover, resilience was significantly associated with glycated hemoglobin, diabetes distress and self-care behavior as hypothesized, further supporting validity.

Conclusion: The Chinese version of the DSTAR-Teen is a psychometrically sound instrument that may capture the adaptive attitudes and behaviors associated with diabetes management.

Practice implications: This scale can be used in both clinical and research settings with the aim of identifying diabetes specific strengths and improving the health outcomes in adolescents with type 1 diabetes.