Brief Resilience Scale (BRS)
Last reviewed
Six statements about bouncing back from stress, scored 1–5
The Brief Resilience Scale was published by Bruce Smith and colleagues in 2008 to measure one specific thing: how well you recover from stress. Most "resilience" questionnaires mix that up with the resources that help, such as optimism, purpose or a supportive family. The BRS leaves those out on purpose, so the score tells you about the bounce-back itself. It has six statements, half of them worded in reverse, and takes about a minute.
In a post-viral illness this is worth measuring because the illness changes it. The original validation included people with chronic pain and cardiac rehabilitation patients, and they scored lower than healthy groups. Slow recovery from stress is a feature of a dysregulated system, not a personal failing, and knowing your number gives you something to compare against as things change. It pairs well with the WHO-5 and the Satisfaction with Life Scale.
Your BRS score
Understanding your score
Items 2, 4 and 6 are worded in reverse and are flipped before scoring, so that a high score always means faster recovery. The six answers are then averaged, giving a score from 1 to 5. The authors' bands are 1.00–2.99 low resilience, 3.00–4.30 normal, and 4.31–5.00 high. General and student samples average around 3.5 to 3.9.
Resilience on this scale is a state as much as a trait. It correlates with how much stress you are currently under, with sleep, and with physical symptoms, and it moves when those move. In the original study, people with chronic pain scored noticeably lower than healthy adults, and the authors treated that as a finding about illness rather than about the people. A body that is already struggling to regulate itself will take longer to settle after any stressor.
That makes the BRS a reasonable thing to track through a long illness. If you re-take it every few months, a rising score usually means the load has eased or your supports have improved. A falling score is a prompt to look at what has changed, and it can be a useful thing to show a clinician or therapist because it speaks to capacity rather than symptoms.
This is not a diagnosis. A low score is not a personality flaw and does not mean you are failing to cope. If stress is overwhelming you, talk to your GP about support. If you ever feel unable to keep yourself safe, seek urgent help (in the UK: call 111 option 2, or 999 in an emergency).
Your results over time
Complete this again in a few weeks and the change will show here.
Symptom scores change slowly. A monthly retake is enough to see a trend.
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