Summary | Resilience and Youth Development Module
RYDM Questions in the CHKS
RYDM Required and Non-Required Questions 2007-08 (PDF)
RYDM Handbook and Narratives
RYDM Handbook (PDF)
RYDM Narrative (PDF)
RYDM Reports and Presentations
NEW!
Measuring Resilience and Youth Development: The Psychometric Properties of the California Healthy Kids SurveyYouth Development Strategies, Concepts, and Research (PDF)
Resilience & Youth Development PowerPoint (PDF)
Other RYDM Publications
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"Bonnie Benard's masterful synthesis of research on resilience is a landmark document, a new framework that will revolutionize the way America thinks about working with and relating to children and youth. Resiliency: What We Have Learned presents a desperately needed positive perspective on youth development and learning. Finally, schools, families, and youth-serving organizations have a proven way to develop competent, confident, and caring young citizens — well prepared to contribute and do well in today's challenging world." - Jeanne Gibbs, Developer, Tribes Learning Communities "Bonnie Benard has done it again. Educators who dream of bringing out the best in all children can take heart. Benard illuminates burgeoning evidence that every individual is hard-wired for self-righting. The professional challenge of the next decade will be to dare to see this innate capacity as the human birthright of every child. It's a reading must." - Kathy Marshall, Executive Director, National Resilience Resource Center, University of Minnesota |
Overview of Resilience Theory
At its foundation, a resilience based approach to youth development is based upon the principle that all people have the ability to overcome adversity and to succeed despite it. Resilience is a strengths based model meaning its focus is on providing the supports and opportunities which promote life success, rather than trying only to eliminate the factors that promote failure.
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A Resiliency Based Youth Development ProcessResearch has consistently shown that the presence of these developmental supports and opportunities provide a better indicator of whether youth will grow up to become successful well-adjusted adults than the presence or absence of risk-factors (i.e. poverty, drug-use, etc.)
By providing youth with caring relationships, high expectations, & opportunities for meaningful participation we meet the fundamental developmental needs which must be met if they are to become happy and successful. As these needs are met youth develop the strengths (developmental outcomes) that will benefit them throughout their lives.
Ultimately, research has found that providing the supports and opportunities that promote healthy development leads directly to positive outcomes in both academics and life.
These developmental supports & opportunities and individual strengths are measured by the CHKS Resilience & Youth Development Module(RYDM) where they are referred to as external and internal assets, respectively.
For a useful handout on the RYDM, download our resilience flyer (PDF).
Why Does Resilience Matter to Schools?
Years of research exploring healthy development and successful learning from various social science disciplines have found a strong relationship between healthy behaviors and academic success (Jessor and Jessor, 1977; Austin, 1991). The implication for schools is that a narrow focus on only cognitive development ignores other critical areas of youth development. Youth development is defined as the process of promoting the social, emotional, physical, moral, cognitive, and spiritual development of young people through meeting their needs for safety, love, belonging, respect, identity, power, challenge, mastery, and meaning. Schools can promote healthy behaviors as well as successful learning in young people by creating climates and teaching practices that honor and meet these developmental needs.
Furthermore, these studies across multiple disciplines are identifying a clear set of principles to guide education and prevention practice. Resilience research, the long-term studies of positive youth development in the face of environmental threat, stress, and risk succinctly identify these principles as caring relationships, high expectation messages, and opportunities for participation and contribution. These supports and opportunities, referred to as protective factors, have been linked to the development of resilience—broadly defined as the ability to rebound from adversity and achieve healthy development and successful learning. They should be available in all environments in a young person’s world: home, school, community, and peer groups.
What Does the RYDM Measure?
The RYDM Theoretical Framework
Unlike the reports for other CHKS modules, the secondary school-level RYDM report does not present the results for each item, but rather reports scores for asset scales or clusters derived from multiple items.
External Assets
...are also refered to as "Developmental Supports and Opportunities" or "Protective Factors". The RYDM asks students their perceptions of Caring Relationships, High Expectations, and Opportunities for Meaningful Participation in the three environments of school, home, community, and about Caring Relationships, and High Expectations with their peers. When young people experience environments rich in these Protective Factors, they are more likely to excel academically, less likely to engage in risky behaviors, and better adapted to deal with the adversity they encounter.
Internal Assets
...are also known as "Positive Developmental Outcomes" or "Personal Strengths". The RYDM measures 6 Internal Assets: Cooperation and Communication, Empathy, Problem Solving, Self-efficacy, Self-awareness, and Goals and Aspirations. These Internal Assets are fostered by environments rich in External Assets. For example youth who feel the adults in their lives care for them, and expect them to succeed, are more likely to care for others, and set high goals for themselves. These are the personal strengths that contribute to a youth's academic and life success and enable them to foster these resilient qualities in others.