Development and Validation of an Academic Resilience Tool for First-Born Learners in High School

Background: Academic resilience is a vital construct for understanding how students overcome academic challenges, particularly among first-born children who often shoulder unique familial expectations. Despite the increasing interest in resilience research, culturally grounded tools tailored to this demographic are lacking in the Indian context. Methods: This study aimed to develop and validate a psychometric instrument to assess academic resilience among first-born school-going children in Tamil Nadu. Based on theoretical frameworks of birth order and resilience, a 41-item scale was initially developed, representing seven constructs. Content validation by experts was followed by item analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to identify the underlying factor structure. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was subsequently performed to validate the model. Results: The final version of the scale retained 23 items across five latent factors. The scale demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .856 to .921, Composite Reliability (CR) of 0.758, and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) of 0.439. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was 0.821, and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was highly significant (χ² = 5485.796, df = 435, p < .001). CFA results confirmed model robustness: CMIN/df = 3.169, GFI = 0.909, AGFI = 0.901, RMSEA = 0.0578, CFI = 0.923, TLI = 0.928, and IFI = 0.932. Parsimony indices (PGFI = 0.675, PCFI = 0.765, PNFI = 0.702) supported the model’s adequacy. Conclusions: The newly developed Academic Resilience Scale for First-Born Learners in Tamil Nadu exhibits sound psychometric properties. It offers researchers and educators a culturally appropriate tool for identifying and supporting resilient academic behaviors in this unique population segment.