Adult Personal Resilience Test (APR)

The Adult Personal Resilience measure was developed by Robert J. Taormina to describe resilience as a set of personal capacities that help people pursue goals, withstand hardship, adjust to change, and recover after setbacks. Instead of treating resilience as a single all-or-nothing quality, the measure separates four related but distinct patterns: Determination, Endurance, Adaptability, and Recuperability.

Determination is the capacity to stay committed to a chosen goal and keep making an effort when progress is difficult. A high score suggests that persistence and follow-through are important parts of how you approach obstacles. A lower score may indicate that your motivation is more variable across situations, or that you are more willing to reconsider a goal when the cost of continuing becomes high. Neither pattern is automatically better in every circumstance: persistence can help you finish meaningful work, while flexibility can prevent wasted effort.

Endurance concerns how well you remain able to withstand difficult circumstances over time. People with higher endurance may feel better equipped to keep functioning while pressure, conflict, or hardship continues. People with lower endurance may notice depletion sooner and need more rest, support, or relief from demanding conditions. Endurance should not be read as a requirement to tolerate unsafe or harmful situations, and a high score does not mean that someone is immune to stress or exhaustion.

Adaptability describes how readily you adjust when circumstances, expectations, or surroundings change. Higher adaptability is associated with finding workable responses to unexpected conditions and shifting plans when needed. Lower adaptability may reflect a stronger preference for predictability and established routines. Adaptability is not the same as having no principles: it is the capacity to respond flexibly while still deciding what matters to you.

Recuperability is the capacity to recover and resume life after adversity or misfortune. Higher scores suggest that you tend to regain your footing after a setback, while lower scores may indicate that difficult events remain disruptive for longer or require more time and support to process. Recovery is not a race, and this score should not be used to judge grief, trauma, illness, or any other personal experience.

The four facet scores together form a resilience profile, while Total Resilience is a simple descriptive average rather than a separately validated single measure. They are based on your self-report at one point in time and can vary with context, resources, relationships, and current demands. The reference markers shown on the chart are contextual sample estimates from the published article, not population percentiles, diagnoses, or predictions about future coping. This assessment is for education and self-reflection only and is not a substitute for professional mental-health care.

These capacities can overlap without being identical. Someone may be highly determined yet need time to recuperate after a major loss, or may adapt quickly while preferring not to persist with goals that no longer fit. The profile is therefore most useful as a starting point for noticing patterns: where you tend to keep going, where you withstand pressure, where you change course, and where you regain balance. Use the results with curiosity and compassion, considering the circumstances in which you answered and the support available to you.

References

• Taormina, R. J. (2015). Adult personal resilience: A new theory, new measure, and practical implications. Psychological Thought, 8(1), 35–46. DOI: 10.5964/psyct.v8i1.126.