Child And Youth Resilience Measure Research Articles

Swimming Upstream in the Midst of Adversity: Exploring Resilience-Enablers among Street Children

Street children are viewed from the medical perspective that focuses on what is wrong in them and the charity perspective that focuses on rescuing them from the hardships that characterise street life. These perspectives consider street children to be physically and psychosocially vulnerable to the development of psychopathology. The strengths and assets that enable street children to cope resiliently in the midst of adversity are often overlooked. This paper presents the results of a quantitative study that focused on unearthing the assets and strengths that enhance wellbeing among street children in spite of adversity. Twenty street children took part in this study and they completed the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) that the researcher used to collect data. The results show that street children coped with their lives due to individual, relational, community and cultural processes. These results challenge researchers and mental health-care workers to be alert to resilience enablers in the context of streetism.

Cognitive contributors to resilience in youth from underserved populations: A brief report

Purpose – The study is a preliminary attempt to identify cognitive factors (e.g., executive functions and intelligence) promoting resilience in youth in an underprivileged population. Sample consisted of 26 adolescents (seven female, 19 male) between the ages of 13 and 19 years (M=16.62, SD=1.53) from an underserved population who live in circumstances of poverty and family dysfunction and who had experienced multiple traumas. Design/methodology/approach – Resilience was measured with the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM)-28. Intelligence, working memory, and information processing speed were the cognitive factors of interest. Socioeconomic status was the environmental factor in interest. Findings – The protective factors (i.e. individual skills, relationship with caregivers and contextual factors) promoting resilience were correlated with cognitive factors. Further analyses yielded gender differences in these relations. Originality/value – Long-held beliefs that intelligence is positively associated with resilience are brought into question by these findings. The relationship between these concepts seems to differ in accordance with socioeconomic status.

The CYRM-12: A Brief Measure of Resilience

This article details the reduction of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) from a 28-item to a 12-item measure. The CYRM-28 is a measure of youth resilience that accounts for cultural and contextual diversity across youth populations. A reduced version of the CYRM is better suited to inclusion in omnibus surveys. Data from two samples of youth from Atlantic Canada are included in the analysis: a) a sample of multiple-service-using youth (n=122; mean age = 18); b) a school-based sample of youth (n=1494; mean age = 15). Three iterations of an Exploratory Factor Analysis were conducted on data from the first sample of youth to identify items for inclusion in the CYRM-12. In the third analysis, a varimax rotated factor analysis of the 12 items resulted in a four-factor solution, with 10 of the items loading well. Reliability of this grouping of questions is satisfactory (α=0.754). Confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted on the second sample of youth. A satisfactory fit was obtained (χ² (51, N=1540) = 255.419, p=0.0001; Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index = 0.960; Comparative Fit Index = 0.957; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.050). Cronbach's Alpha for the 12 items was also satisfactory (α=0.840). Results show sufficient content validity of the CYRM-12 to merit its use as a screener for resilience processes in the lives of adolescents.

Resilience and enculturation: Strengths among young offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a lifelong disorder with no cure and is accompanied by neurological deficits. FASD is a health concern that is increasingly gaining attention within the justice system. Research has identified an association between delinquency and prenatal alcohol exposure. This study looked at resources of resilience for young offenders and addressed questions regarding the association between enculturation and resilience, and whether offence histories differed between youth with and without a diagnosis of FASD. Ninety-four young offenders between 13 and 23 years of age participated, 47 diagnosed with FASD and 47 without. While this study was not intended to be a study on Aboriginal adolescence, given the overrepresentation of FASD among Aboriginal youth involved in justice settings, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) was included to assess levels of enculturation among youth. The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) was used to assess resilience. Results showed a positive association between the resilience-enhancing resources and enculturation, indicating that the two are intricately connected. Neither group differed in their rates on the resilience-enhancing resources or the enculturation measure. While the resilience measure was not significantly associated with official conviction data, it did demonstrate significant associations with self-reported offending data. Finally, no significant results emerged to suggest that FASD had an influence on the association between the resilience measure and offence history or the enculturation measure and offence history. Findings suggest the importance of incorporating cultural components into services targeted to produce resilience and positive outcomes, and that different groups may have different service needs.

The Study of Youth Resilience Across Cultures: Lessons from a Pilot Study of Measurement Development

Resilience researchers from diverse disciplines and cultural settings face formidable challenges in conceptualizing and developing standardized metrics of resilience that are representative of adolescent and young adult experiences across cultures. We discuss these issues using the case example of a pilot study involving researchers in 14 sites in 11 countries. The goal of the International Resilience Project was to develop a culturally and contextually relevant measure of youth resilience, the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM). Cultural sensitivity and an iterative research design introduced to the study a number of problems that future studies of resilience will need to address: ambiguity in the definition of positive outcomes; a lack of predictability of models across cultures; and measurement design challenges.