Youth Resiliency: Assessing Students' Capacity for Success at School

As opposed to the problem-based approach of dealing with specific at-risk behaviours in secondary schools, the purpose of Resiliency Canada's self-reported Youth Resiliency: Assessing Developmental Strengths (YR:ADS) questionnaire is to provide a statistically sound and research-based approach to understanding the factors or strengths that are related to the development of adolescent resiliency. Working in collaboration with the Calgary Board of Education from a strength-based approach to understanding child and adolescent development, Resiliency Canada introduces the youth resiliency framework and presents the findings from a large urban sample of grade 7 to 9 students (N=2291). A framework for understanding the construct of resiliency that results from the investigation of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the development of youth resiliency and adaptive behaviour is presented. Outcomes of this research supports both the protective protective and challenge models of resiliency.