Development and Validation of the Inventory of Stress and Resilience in Cross-Cultural Mobility (IERM-T)

Background: The intensification of global mobility demands robust tools to assess the psychological impact of cross-cultural transitions. Existing instruments are critiqued for their failure to capture the dynamic stress-coping process, as outlined by Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) transactional model. Aim: This study developed and piloted the Inventory of Stress and Resilience in Cross-cultural Mobility (IERM-T), a novel instrument designed to fill this critical theoretical and psychometric gap. Method: The multilingual IERM-T (Portuguese, Spanish, English) was administered via a custom R Shiny application. A comprehensive R-based psychometric analysis was conducted on data from a pilot sample (N=42), performing exploratory factor analysis, reliability estimation, and longitudinal assessment of 107 emotion-coping episodes. Results: The IERM-T demonstrated strong psychometric properties: excellent internal consistency for the Symptoms scale (α = .938), good for Stressors and Emotions (α = .887), and acceptable for Well-being (α = .748). Factor analyses revealed clear structures (e.g., 2-factor for Stressors and Emotions), and longitudinal data confirmed stable emotional patterns. Criterion validity was robust, with a strong negative correlation between symptoms and a novel psychometric resilience score (r = -.846). Conclusion: The IERM-T provides a valid, reliable, and theoretically grounded tool that moves beyond cataloging stressors to dynamically assess appraisal, coping, and resilience, offering significant promise for research and clinical practice in cross-cultural contexts.