Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM)

& Adult Resilience Measure (ARM)

User Manual
Version 2.5 | 2022

&

[Link]
CYRM/ARM Measure © 1
 Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................... 3

Overview of the CYRM/ARM......................................................................................... 3

Development of the CYRM/ARM.................................................................................. 4

Understanding resilience.............................................................................................. 5

Permissions and access................................................................................................ 7

Selecting the right version............................................................................................ 9

Contextualising the CYRM/ARM.................................................................................. 10

Background to contextualising the measures......................................................... 10

How to contextualise the measure.......................................................................... 11

Contextualisation and analysis service................................................................... 14

Tips for contextualising............................................................................................ 14

Translating the CYRM/ARM......................................................................................... 15

Administering the CYRM/ARM.................................................................................... 16

Scoring and interpreting................................................................................................ 17

Subscales.................................................................................................................. 18

Understanding and interpreting scores................................................................... 18

Combing with other measures of resilience........................................................... 19

Data analysis service ............................................................................................ 19

Validity and reliability of the CYRM/ARM.................................................................... 20

Sharing your research................................................................................................... 22

Services and products we offer.................................................................................... 23

References..................................................................................................................... 24

Appendix A – Decision aid for measure selection...................................................... 26

Appendix B – Ethical protocol....................................................................................... 28

Appendix C – Item guide............................................................................................... 29

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1. Introduction
This manual is intended to give prospective users of the Child and Youth Resilience
Measure (CYRM) and the Adult Resilience Measure (ARM) more information about the
tools.

It contains information about the origins of the measures, the different versions (e.g.,
CYRM-28, ARM-12), how they can be contextualised, administered, scored, and more.

We recommend users review this information and the FAQs on the website prior to using
the measures.

To cite this manual, please use:

Resilience Research Centre. (2022). CYRM and ARM user manual v2.5. Halifax, NS:
Resilience Research Centre, Dalhousie University. Retrieved from
[Link]

2. Overview of the CYRM/ARM

The Child and Youth Resilience Measure and Adult Resilience Measure are measures
of social-ecological resilience that have taken various forms since their initial
development. After reviewing studies that have used the measures and further
investigation of their psychometric properties, we now recommend the CYRM-R and
ARM-R which you can access on our website.

These are revised versions of the measures and are typically suitable for children aged
5-9, youth aged 10-23, and adults aged 18 or older (depending on the focus of a study,
young adults aged 18-23 can receive either the CYRM or the ARM).

The revised versions of the measures consist of 17-items by default and can be
scored on 3- or 5-point scales. The items in the measures are all positively worded and
therefore scoring involves just a simple summing of responses.

An explanation of each item of the measure is given in Appendix C.

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When you use one of the measures, we ask you to cite the following sources:

CYRM:
Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2018). The CYRM-R: A Rasch-validated revision
of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work.
[Link]

ARM:
Liebenberg, L., & Moore, J. C. (2018). A social ecological measure of resilience for
adults: the RRC-ARM. Social Indicators Research, 136(1), 1–19.
[Link]

3. Development of the CYRM/ARM

The Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM) and the Adult Resilience Measure
(ARM) are self-report measures of social-ecological resilience and are used by
researchers and practitioners worldwide.

Originally, the CYRM was developed as part of the International Resilience Project (IRP)
at the Resilience Research Centre (RRC), which involved 14 communities in 11 countries
around the world.

Work with communities in each location led to the development of the initial 58-item
CYRM. This version was subsequently reduced to a 28-item resilience measure (CYRM-
28), a very brief 12-item version (CYRM-12) and later a 17-item version (CYRM-R). It has
been adapted for use with adults (the ARM), younger children, and a version that can
be completed by a knowledgeable informant (a ‘person most knowledgeable’ or PMK
version).

To date, the measures have been translated into more than 20 languages and used in
more than 150 research studies. They have been used in investigations of resilience
over the lifespan and to evaluate the efficacy of interventions to build and maintain
resilience. Researchers and professionals worldwide continue to use the measures to
gain insight into the resilience of the individuals and groups they work with.

Currently, we recommend using the 17-item versions of the CYRM and ARM (also known
as the CYRM-R and ARM-R). These measures are brief and can be completed in just a
few minutes. You can find older versions of the measures in the archive section of our
website.

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More about the development of the measures can be found in the following sources:

• Ungar, M., Liebenberg, L., Boothroyd, R., Kwong, W. M., Lee, T. Y., Leblanc, J., …
Makhnach, A. (2008). The study of youth resilience across cultures: lessons from
a pilot study of measurement development. Research in Human Development, 5(3),
166–180. [Link]

• Ungar, M., & Liebenberg, L. (2009). Cross-cultural consultation leading to the

development of a valid measure of youth resilience: the international resilience
project. Studia Psychologica, 51(2–3), 259–268.

• Ungar, M., & Liebenberg, L. (2011). Assessing resilience across cultures using mixed
methods: construction of the child and youth resilience measure. Journal of Mixed
Methods Research, 5(2), 126–149. [Link]

• Liebenberg, L., & Moore, J. C. (2018). A social ecological measure of resilience for
adults: the RRC-ARM. Social Indicators Research, 136(1), 1–19.
[Link]

• Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2018). The CYRM-R: A Rasch-validated
revision of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of Evidence-Informed
Social Work. [Link]

Further information on scoring and other aspects of the measures is given later.

4. Understanding resilience
Most commonly, the term resilience has come to mean an individual's ability to
overcome adversity and continue his or her normal development or functioning.
However, the RRC uses a more ecological and culturally sensitive definition of resilience.
Dr. Michael Ungar, founder and Director of the RRC, has suggested that resilience is
better understood as follows:

"In the context of exposure to significant adversity, resilience is both the capacity of
individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical
resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity individually and collectively to
negotiate for these resources to be provided in culturally meaningful ways."
(see Ungar, 2008, 2011).

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This definition shifts our understanding of resilience from a purely individual and
psychological concept (e.g., ‘hardiness’), popular with western-trained researchers and
human services providers, to a more relational understanding of wellbeing which is
embedded in a social-ecological framework.

Understood this way, resilience requires individuals to have the capacity to access
supportive resources that bolster well-being, while also emphasizing that it is up to
families, communities, and governments to provide these resources in ways individuals
value. In this sense, resilience is the result of both successful navigation to resources and
negotiation for resources to be provided in meaningful ways.

The CYRM and ARM are strongly social-ecological measures that reflect access to and
use of such supportive resources, which enable individuals to manage or overcome many
of the adversities they encounter.

Risk Protective Desired

Exposure Processes Outcomes
e.g., childhood
and Factors e.g., wellbeing
adversity e.g., family
support

Measured by the
CYRM/ARM

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You can read more about resilience from this perspective in the following:

Ungar, M. (2008). Resilience across cultures. British Journal of Social Work, 38(2),
218-235. [Link]

Ungar, M. (2011). The social ecology of resilience: Addressing contextual and

cultural ambiguity of a nascent construct. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry,
81(1), 1-17. [Link]

Ungar, M. (2015). Varied patterns of family resilience in challenging contexts. Journal

of Marital and Family Therapy, 42(1), 19-31.
[Link]

Ungar, M. (2017). Which counts more? The differential impact of the environment or
the differential susceptibility of the individual? British Journal of Social Work, 47(5),
1279–1289. [Link]

Ungar, M. (2018). Systemic resilience: Principles and processes for a science of

change in contexts of adversity. Ecology & Society, 23(4), 34.
[Link]

Ungar, M. & Theron, L. (2020). Resilience and mental health: How multisystemic
processes contribute to positive outcomes. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(5), 441-448.
[Link]

Ungar M. (Ed.)(2021). Multisystemic resilience: Adaptation and transformation in

contexts of change. New York: Oxford University Press. Available open access:
[Link]
oso/9780190095888.001.0001/oso-9780190095888

5. Permissions and access

There are no costs or special permissions required to use the CYRM or ARM,
provided that:

(a) Any reproduction of the measures is accompanied by the appropriate copyright

information, found below;

(b) Any report or publication involving the measure is accompanied by the

appropriate citation/reference, found below;

(c) The measures are not sold.

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The measures are also free to use for not-for-profit purposes but not for commercial
purposes (i.e., they are free to use for activities like research or teaching). If you wish to
use the measures for commercial purposes, please get in touch with us as licenses are
available. Contact the Resilience Research Centre through email at RRC@[Link] or phone
at +1 (902) 494-8482.

To obtain the measures, you must complete the form on the Resilience Research Centre
website ([Link] Once the form is submitted,
you will receive instant access to the measures. The information we collect helps us
to understand the kind of projects the measures are being used in. It is retained for our
records only.

Copyright for the CYRM-R/ARM-R:

Copyright © 2019 by Philip Jefferies, Ph.D., Lisa McGarrigle, Ph.D., and Michael Ungar,
Ph.D.

Copyright for the CYRM-28/ARM-28/CYRM-12/ARM-12:

Copyright © 2019 by Michael Ungar, Ph.D., and Linda Liebenberg, Ph.D.

Reference for the CYRM-R/ARM-R:

Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2018). The CYRM-R: a Rasch-validated revision
of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work,
1-24. [Link]

Reference for the CYRM-28/ARM-28/CYRM-12/ARM-12:

Ungar, M., & Liebenberg, L. (2011). Assessing resilience across cultures using mixed
methods: construction of the child and youth resilience measure. Journal of Mixed
Methods Research, 5(2), 126–149. [Link]

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6. Selecting the right version

There are various versions of the CYRM and ARM and your choice of version will depend
on the individuals you plan to use the measure with.
In terms of age, three versions are available:

CYRM-R for children ages 5-9;

CYRM-R for youth ages 10-23;
ARM-R for adults 18 or older.

There are also versions of each measure above that may be completed by someone
familiar with the target individual instead (a person most knowledgeable; PMK).

A PMK is someone who knows the individual participating in the study well. PMKs
can be primary caregivers, involved older siblings, teachers, youth care workers, and
others who play a significant role in the individual’s life and are familiar with their
challenges, opportunities, and resources. PMKs can be selected by the research
team. For example, the team may decide they want to include only mothers or
only parents or teachers as PMKs. Alternatively, researchers can ask the individual
participating in the study to identify a person who knows a lot about them and
would be able to comment on their lives.

Each of the measures is offered in a 3- or 5-point response scale. The 3-point version
is scored using options of ‘No’, ‘Sometimes’, and ‘Yes’, while the 5-point version goes
includes ‘Not at all’, ‘A little’, ‘Somewhat’, ‘Quite a bit’, and ‘A lot’. The 5-point scale can
provide a richer account of variability in responses to the items, but the 3-point scale
may be preferable for individuals with comprehension difficulties or in settings where
the administration of quantitative measures is not [Link], the CYRM-R, the
ARM-R, and their PMK equivalents are offered with simplified wording.

Deciding on the version of the measure to use will depend on your knowledge of the
target group. If you suspect respondents may have comprehension difficulties, you may
wish to use versions with simplified language or 3-point scoring.

Similarly, if you are unable to speak to the individual directly, or wish to gain insight into
perceptions of others, you may want to use one of the PMK versions. You might also
consider involving both PMK and self-report versions to compare responses (for an
example of this see Sanders et al., 2013).

We also provide a decision aid for measure selection in Appendix A.

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7. Contextualising the CYRM/ARM

The CYRM and ARM are measures of resilience that are ready for immediate use.
However, to further enhance the precision of the measures, we recommend an
additional process of contextualisation prior to beginning your study. This helps fit the
measures to your particular setting, potentially improving the validity of the measures
and improving the accuracy of the data.

Background to contextualising the measures

The CYRM and ARM were developed using data from 14 communities across 11
countries. This led to the identification of resilience resources that were important
across all locations and a common language to identify them. The final measures
therefore work well in assessing the resilience of individuals and communities in
various locations around the world.

However, a more precisely fitting measure is one that is specifically tuned to a single
context. For instance, a sense of belonging in one’s community is generally important
for adults, as noted by many studies of resilience in diverse contexts around the world.
It is included as an item in the ARM to reflect this. However, there may be some contexts
where what constitutes a community may be less typical, such as when assessing the
resilience of prisoners/incarcerated individuals, or when a community is experiencing
conflict and one’s group may be better defined a different way, etc. This means it may be
important to adapt or rephrase a particular item.

For another example, there were items in the original CYRM about spirituality and
religion. Subsequent investigations found that these were not critical to the resilience
of individuals in all contexts, hence they were not included in the 17-item revisions of
the measures. However, there are contexts where spirituality and or religion are strong
aspects of everyday life and also important to an individual’s resilience. In such settings,
a measure of resilience would benefit from including these items.

In sum, there may be additional supportive resources you believe are important to the
resilience of your participants in your setting which are not covered by the measure,
or that there are ways of phrasing or re-wording the items that are more appropriate
to your participants. If so, this means contextualising is an important step prior to
administering the measures.

Adapting a measure may seem a little unusual. Many scientific tools clearly state
that they should not be modified or altered in any way, as this can risk altering their
psychometric properties. For those used to using survey tools, adjusting a measure

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may therefore seem like something to avoid. However, the CYRM and ARM are social-
ecological measures, and we know that social-ecological resources can vary between
contexts (such as the examples above). Therefore, adjusting the CYRM and ARM can
actually lead to a more appropriate measure.

We provide guidance below to support this process to ensure the measures retain their
robustness.

We also understand that not everyone has the time to contextualise a measure and
remind users that the measures have been validated in many settings. There is therefore
nothing wrong with using the measures as originally prescribed.

We recommend you review the steps of contextualising the measures below even if you
do not adopt them.

How to contextualise the measure

Contextualising the CYRM or ARM involves reflecting on the content of the measure
so that the items appropriately measure what they are intended to measure, and any
important additional resources are also included.

This involves understanding what is important for the resilience of individuals in your
setting, comparing this understanding to the measure and making appropriate changes,
and finally assessing these changes. We have broken this process down into a series of
general steps, which are discussed in detail below.

However, it is important to perform this process in conjunction with others, especially

those who know your target context well, such as those who may ultimately complete
the measure. Therefore, where possible, we recommend convening a local advisory
committee (LAC) to support this process. A local advisory committee (LAC) can provide
valuable input on the research implementation, such as suggesting contextually relevant
ways of conducting the study. They can also comment on findings and help ensure that
interpretations of the data are locally relevant. However, they can also help improve
the measure itself by helping to identify additional important resilience resources or
alternative ways to phrase items.

We have found that it works well to consult with a group of about five people who have
something important to say about their community and the local context. Depending on
whether measure is to be used, the group could include youth, parents, professionals,
caregivers, or elders who themselves may have overcome challenges while growing up.
This group can also help decide whether it would be useful to collect data from PMKs
about the participants’ lives and can suggest feasible ways to do so.
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Step 1: Explore resilience in the local context.

We recommend that focus group-style discussions are held with members of the
LAC and others in the context where the measure is to be used. This will help you
gain a deeper understanding of how resilience is understood in a specific setting. The
following prompts may help generate discussion:

“What do I need to know to grow up or be well here?”

“How do you describe people who grow up well here despite the many problems they
face?”
“What does it mean to you, your family and your community when bad things
happen?”
“What kinds of things are most challenging for you growing up here?”
“What do you do when you face difficulties in your life?”
“What does being healthy mean to you and others in your family and community?”
“What do you and others you know do to keep healthy? (Mentally, physically,
emotionally, or spiritually)”

The outcome of these focus groups will provide insights into local conceptualisations
of resilience. It can also provide insightful qualitative data for mixed methods
investigations.

Step 2: Consider additional factors.

Determine whether unique protective factors can be conceptualised from content from
your discussions or answers to the questions above. For instance, if it transpires that
social media may have a strong influence in your sample, and that misinformation or
propaganda may be important to address, then confidence in one’s critical thinking or
ability to appraise information may form a protective factor that could be added to the
measure.

Step 3: Check the items in the measure.

Look at the current items in the measure. You may also wish to consult Appendix B,
which describes the factors of the measure. Reflect on the intention of the factor and
the specific items that target each.

Do members of the LAC believe there are better ways of phrasing some of the items to
make them clearer or to avoid misunderstanding or other issues? Are there additional
items that might address the factor in a different way?

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Step 4: Review the adapted measure.

Review the measure with your local advisory group, including any new factors and
items, to ensure it is appropriate to the local context and that each item would make
sense to the target group. For example, it may be important to simplify some terms for
individuals with comprehension difficulties or it may be important to provide specific
examples to accompany each item.

You should also consider piloting your measure with individuals who are similar to the
population that will be included in the full study to ensure that participants understand
the items as you intend them to be understood. For further guidance on this process of
‘cognitive interviewing’, see the guides by Willis and Artino (2013) and Latcheva (2011).

Step 5: Evaluate the adapted measure.

After you have collected your data, it is important to explore your data prior to
any proper analyses. First, even the best of suggestions from a suitable LAC may
sometimes not work out. Perhaps some of your participants misunderstood one or
more items or perhaps they were not as appropriate or important as you had assumed.
Initial exploratory analyses can help to check issues like these.

For instance, basic checks of internal consistency/reliability such as Cronbach’s

alpha or McDonald’s omega can help indicate whether the items in the measure work
well together, or whether one or more items in particular do not. If you discover that
one or more items do not work well with others in a subscale or overall scale, and
that consistency/reliability values would be significantly improved by their removal,
you should consider excluding these items prior to proper analyses. Most statistical
software packages offer these tests. We do not recommend a specific cut-off for
sufficient consistency/reliability, nor thresholds for improvement, since these will
vary depending on the number and nature of items in your measure. There are also
many good guides available online for conducting these tests in your chosen software
package. We would recommend this kind of analysis as the minimum for checking the
impact of alterations to the measure.

Further in-depth assessments of the measure can involve confirming or exploring

the overall fit of your adapted measure to your group. This may be dependent on your
quantitative skills. For instance, you may perform a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
to check whether a model using an overall resilience factor (consisting of all the items)
or a model comprising subscales (see later) fits your data. There are many good guides
for CFA available online. Many consider CFA a good standard for evaluating the validity
of a measure.

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If your CFA results in a model with poor fit and that minor model modifications do not
improve its fit (i.e., freeing parameters per modification indices), then you may consider
conducting an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). An EFA will help you determine the
number of factors/subscales in your adapted measure (if more than one) and also if
any items should be excluded (i.e., if they do not appear to work well with other items
– similar to the internal consistency/reliability analyses). If you perform an EFA with a
random half of your dataset, you can conduct a new CFA with the second half to confirm
the fit of your new model.

Contextualisation and analysis service

We understand that not everyone has the time or skills to conduct all or part of this
process of contextualising and analysis. We can therefore offer support through the
RRC for researchers requiring assistance with different phases of their research and
evaluation work. If you would like to know more about the support that is available,
please contact the Resilience Research Centre through email at RRC@[Link] or phone at
+1 (902) 494-8482.

For further information, see the section on Services.

Tips for contextualising

• We recommend that no more than ten site-specific items are added to the CYRM
or ARM, as long surveys can lead to fatigue or boredom and may compromise the
integrity of your data.

• Try to avoid including statements with multiple conditions as responses may

vary depending on interpretation, which may be undesirable – e.g., “I can trust my
neighbours and the government”.

• Try to avoid including new elements ‘just in case’, and only include those that you
(and ideally your LAC) strongly believe are important.

• Document any steps that you take and report these as appropriate in any
publications so that readers may follow and understand your approach.

Our guide to contextualising is just one recommended approach. Another good example
of this (minus the production and evaluation of new items) can be found in Panter-
Brick’s (2018) work with Syrian and Jordanian youth on pages 1809-1810 in the section
titled ‘Qualitative Work and Pilot Surveys’.

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8. Translating the CYRM/ARM

The CYRM and ARM were developed in English, but some translations of different
versions of the base measures are available from our website.
We currently have the following translations available:

Albanian Indonesian
Arabic Italian
Bengali Korean
Chinese Lugandan
Farsi Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil)
Filipino Setswana-Tswana
Finnish Slovenian
French Spanish (Spain and Latin America)
German Turkish
Hindi Urdu

Other languages may be available and are added to our website as we receive them.

These translations have been created by researchers who have worked with the RRC.
However, each translation was done independently and, therefore, we cannot guarantee
their accuracy.

If you would like to create your own translation, no special authorisation is required. We
just ask that you share your translation with us so we can share it with others.

If you are considering a translation, please see Appendix C for further information
on the items in the measures to facilitate accurate translation. We also recommend
a translation and back translation process to enhance the validity of the translated
measure. For information on back translation, see guides by Brislin (1970) and van
Ommeren and colleagues (1999).

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9. Administering the CYRM/ARM

The CYRM and ARM can be administered to participants in groups or individually. In
groups, the measure can be read aloud but participants should respond privately to
encourage truthfulness.

If you are working with young children, we recommend you work individually with them
to ensure they understand each item in the measure.

The measures take 5-10 minutes to complete, depending on whether it is administered

in the participant’s native language, the age of the participant, their level of
comprehension, and the addition of any new items.

Visual scoring assistance

For younger children or those with literacy or comprehension difficulties, it may be
useful to provide a pictorial scale to aid responding. You can print these and share them
with participants. We have included some possibilities below that may be useful:

• Panter-Brick and colleagues’ (2018) glasses of water:

Not at all A little Somewhat Quite a bit A lot

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

• For the 3-item scale, the thumbs up/down recommended by Erb and colleagues
(2017):

No Sometimes Yes
[1] [2] [3]

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• For very young children, we have previously recommended using smiley faces. A
study by Hall and colleagues (2016) suggests that smiley faces should run from
happy to very happy (rather than neutral to happy or unhappy to happy) in order for
the full range of the scale to be used by children. For example:
For example:

Not at all A little Somewhat Quite a bit A lot

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

No Sometimes Yes
[1] [2] [3]

10. Scoring and interpreting

The items within the measures can be directly summed to gain a total score of an
individual’s resilience. In the unmodified base measures there are no reverse-coded
items and all are weighted equally.

If you are using an unmodified 5-point measure (with response options from 1-5), the
minimum score is 17 and the maximum score is 85.

For an unmodified 3-point measure (with response options from 1-3), the minimum
score is 17 and the maximum score is 51.

The minimum and maximum scores of modified measures may vary.

If a person skips or misses an item, their scores should not be automatically computed,
as their overall score will be artificially lower than others who complete the measure. If
this happens, you can discard the incomplete result or consider methods of managing
missing data (e.g., [Link]

We do not currently provide scoring syntax for software or a scoring tool.

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Subscales
In addition to an overall resilience score, in the 17-item versions of the CYRM-R and
ARM-R, scores for two subscales can be derived. They are for:

Personal resilience, and

Caregiver (CYRM-R) or Relational (ARM-R) resilience.

Caregiver/relational resilience relates to characteristics associated with the important

relationships shared with either a primary caregiver or a partner or family. Personal
resilience includes intrapersonal and interpersonal items. These are linked, as both
dimensions depend on individuals’ social ecologies to reinforce their resilience.

To derive personal resilience subscale scores, sum 10 items: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14,
[Link] an unmodified measure, the minimum subscale score is 10 and the maximum is
30 (3-point version) or 50 (5-point version).

To derive caregiver/relational resilience scores, sum 7 items: 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 17.

In an unmodified measure, the minimum subscale score is 7 and the maximum score is
21 (3-point version) or 35 (5-point version).

In modified measures or depending on the depth of your analyses, you may find
alternative configurations for the subscales, or even alternatively conceptualised
subscales (see the section on Contextualising the measures).

Understanding and interpreting scores

For the overall measure and subscales, higher scores indicate characteristics
associated with stronger resilience.

In any given context, there will be individuals with higher and lower levels of resilience.
For this reason, we recommend comparing high scorers to low scorers and investigating
potential reasons for these differences. You may wish to rank your sample by score and
contrast the top half of scorers against the lower half to determine what might account
for these differences.

Thresholds and cut-offs

We have received requests for cut-offs or thresholds to help users understand their
scores and what score is necessary to have a “good” or “normal” level of resilience.
However, as resilience tends to vary between contexts, any threshold would similarly
vary. For this reason, our recommendation is to instead to contrast high and low scorers
within your sample.
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Alternatively, you could consider that individuals scoring greater than one standard
deviation above your sample average have ‘higher resilience’, those between one
standard deviation above and below the average have ‘moderate resilience’, and those
below one standard deviation have ‘low resilience’. This is based on assumptions that
your sample is ordinary in the sense that only a smaller amount of individuals will have
lower or higher levels of resilience.

We currently do not have good information on resilience ‘norms’, as again, these are
likely to vary by context. However, you may wish to consult the website, as average
scores of groups using the measures from various studies around the world are listed
as the information becomes available to us. These may help you to understand how
your scores compare to those listed.

Combing with other measures of resilience

The CYRM/ARM are measures of resilience which interaction with external elements
in our environment (they are social-ecological measures). However, for a more holistic
appraisal of resilience, you may wish to consider also including the Rugged Resilience
Measure (RRM), which is a measure of internal or psychological resilience that are our
centre also offers.

When used together, the CYRM/ARM provides an appraisal of important external

protective factors, while the RRM provides an appraisal of important internal protective
factors, thereby giving a richer account of the resilience of your sample.

Data analysis service

Not everyone has the time or skills to clean, explore, and analyse the data they collect.
We offer a service for the management of your data. This can involve just particular
tasks (e.g., data cleaning, just particular analyses, etc) or a comprehensive data
analysis, leading to a finalised report of findings and recommendations.

Please get in touch with us to enquire about this. Contact the Resilience Research
Centre through email at RRC@[Link] or phone at +1 (902) 494-8482.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 19
 CYRM/ARM

11. Validity and reliability of the CYRM/ARM

Many studies have investigated the measurement and psychometric properties of
the CYRM and ARM since they were first developed. We are continually updating the
Properties page of our website to share this information from published studies.

If you wish to read or provide a reference to a study that has validated the revisions, we
refer you to:
Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2018). The CYRM-R: A Rasch-validated
revision of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of Evidence-Informed
Social Work. [Link]

In the section below, we have provided a summary of popular indicators of reliability

and validity for the revised versions of the measures. If you have modified the measure,
these indicators may not apply. However, we would encourage you to run your own
validity and reliability analyses and share these results with us.

Internal reliability/consistency
Cronbach’s alpha = .87 (overall resilience), .82 (personal resilience subscale), .82
(caregiver/relational resilience subscale). The subscale alphas were determined by
Jefferies et al. (2018). The overall resilience alpha came from the same study but was
not published.

Person-Separation Index = .74 (personal resilience), .71 (caregiver/relational resilience).

Derived by Jefferies et al. (2018). No overall PSI is available.

Rasch validation
The subscales have been validated against the Rasch model (an alternative to Classical
Test Theory such as using factor analysis). They were found to satisfy requirements
of unidimensionality, had good fit statistics and targeting properties, and lacked item
bias and problematic local dependency. The subscales were also found to have a good
ability to differentiate between individuals with varying levels of resilience (Jefferies et
al., 2018).

Content and face validity

The measures were originally developed during the IRP, involving 14 communities
across 11 countries chosen for their diversity. These sites generated statements for the
measures which were reviewed by local advisory groups and experts in cross-cultural
resilience. The teams agreed that the product was a contextually sensitive measure of
social-ecological resilience, and this has since been established by multiple experts
CYRM/ARM Measure ©
worldwide (e.g., Daigneault et al., 2013; Ungar et al., 2008).
20
 CYRM/ARM

Construct and criterion validity

The subscales of the CYRM-R and ARM-R were derived from an EFA which produced a
model with good fit statistics (RMSEA = .059, RMSR = .55) (Jefferies et al., 2018).

Many studies around the world have used CFA to validate the factor structure of
previous iterations of the measures (see van Rensburg et al., 2017).

Concurrent validity has been established for the CYRM-28 through positive correlations
with self-esteem and acceptance (Daigneault et al., 2013) and negative correlations
with PTSD (Zahradnik et al., 2010) and trauma (Collin-Vézina, Coleman, Milne, Sell, &
Daigneault, 2011).

Test-retest reliability
Test-retest statistics are not yet available for the CYRM-R or ARM-R, but Daigneault and
colleagues (2013) determined test-retest correlation coefficients ≥ .7 at two-week and
three-month intervals for the CYRM-28.

Other statistics and information

Please refer to the Properties page of our website, which contains further information
on the validity and reliability of the measures.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 21
 CYRM/ARM

12. Sharing your research

We like to know how our measures are being used around the world. If you are able to
share details of your study with us, please send us the following information. It will be
kept confidential unless otherwise stated.

1. Site details: Provide the location of your research site, as well as contact information
for your project leader. Please include a contact name, telephone number, and e-mail
address.

2. Context: Outline the context (geographic, political, economic, etc.) within which your
participants live, and describe the risk factors they may face.

3. Participants: Describe your research participants: breakdown numbers by sex/

gender, the range and mean of age and education level, as well as the way they are
perceived as a group by their community (if applicable).

4. Local resilience: Describe what resilience means in your particular site. Explain
how this is demonstrated and consider including a quote from an individual that
expresses what resilience means in your site’s particular context.

5. Scores: Provide the mean scores and standard deviation of the measure. If you have
any important demographic variables, include the mean and standard deviation of
scores for these groups too (e.g., refugees, non-refugees).

6. Adaptations: Describe any alterations you have made to the measure and why you
made the changes.

7. Quotes: If possible, provide a quote from a participant that is relevant to, and
descriptive of, your research and/or its findings. Alternatively, you could include a
summary statement that does the same.

8. Photo: If possible, please also include one or two photographs relevant to your site
and research. Please make sure you have permission to share any photographs,
including release forms for any people that appear in the photographs.

9. Data: If you are able to share your entire dataset with us, this will help us to develop
our understanding of norms. Make sure any identifying information is removed
prior to sending it. From time to time we use datasets in analyses that result in
publications, but would contact you first about this to discuss further.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 22
 CYRM/ARM

13. Services and products we offer

The CYRM and ARM are free to use for research and education purposes.
However, we also offer the following products and services, which are priced according
to offset costs.

• Commercial users: We offer volume and site licenses.

• Measure preparation: We can conduct or advise on the process of modifying
the CYRM or ARM to suit your particular setting.
• Data analysis and reporting: Once your data has been collected, we offer
services including full data analysis and reporting to help understand the
scores of your sample.

To enquire about any of the products or services offered, please contact the Resilience
Research Centre through email at rrc@[Link] or phone at +1 (902) 494-8482.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 23
 References
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 1(3), 185–216. [Link]

Daigneault, I., Dion, J., Hébert, M., McDuff, P., & Collin-Vézina, D. (2013). Psychometric
properties of the Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28) among samples of French
Canadian youth. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(2),
160–171. [Link]

Erb, S., Letang, E., Glass, T., Natamatungiro, A., Mnzava, D., Mapesi, H., Haschke, M., Duthaler,
U., Berger, B., Muri, L., Bader, J., Marzolini, C., Elzi, L., Klimkait, T., Langewitz, W., Battegay,
M., & Study group, K. (2017). A simple visual analog scale is a valuable tool to assess self-
reported adherence in HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral treatment in a resource-limited
setting. Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research, 08(09).
[Link]

Hall, L., Hume, C., & Tazzyman, S. (2016). Five degrees of happiness: Effective smiley face
Likert scales for evaluating with children. 311–321.
[Link]

Jefferies, P., McGarrigle, L., & Ungar, M. (2018). The CYRM-R: A Rasch-validated revision of
the Child and Youth Resilience Measure. Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work.
[Link]

Latcheva, R. (2011). Cognitive interviewing and factor-analytic techniques: A mixed method

approach to validity of survey items measuring national identity. Quality & Quantity, 45(6),
1175–1199. [Link]

Panter-Brick, C., Hadfield, K., Dajani, R., Eggerman, M., Ager, A., & Ungar, M. (2018).
Resilience in context: A brief and culturally grounded measure for Syrian refugee and
Jordanian host-community adolescents. Child Development, 89(5), 1803–1820.
[Link]

Resilience Research Centre. (2022). CYRM and ARM user manual v2.5. Resilience Research
Centre, Dalhousie University. [Link]

Sanders, J., Munford, R., Liebenberg, L., & Thimasarn-Anwar, T. (2013). Youth and the ‘Person
Most Knowledgeable’ – what trusted others know about vulnerable youth (p. 68). Massey
University & Dalhousie University.

Ungar, M. (2008). Resilience across cultures. The British Journal of Social Work, 38(2),
218–235. [Link]

Ungar, M. (2011). The social ecology of resilience: Addressing contextual and cultural
ambiguity of a nascent construct. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(1), 1–17.
[Link]

CYRM/ARM Measure © 24
Ungar, M. (2015). Varied patterns of family resilience in challenging contexts. Journal of
Marital and Family Therapy, 42(1), 19–31. [Link]

Ungar, M. (2017). Which counts more: Differential impact of the environment or differential
susceptibility of the individual? The British Journal of Social Work, 47(5), 1279–1289.
[Link]

Ungar, M. (2018). Systemic resilience: Principles and processes for a science of change in
contexts of adversity. Ecology and Society, 23(4). [Link]

Ungar, M., & Liebenberg, L. (2011). Assessing resilience across cultures using mixed
methods: Construction of the child and youth resilience measure. Journal of Mixed Methods
Research, 5(2), 126–149. [Link]

Ungar, M., Liebenberg, L., Boothroyd, R., Kwong, W. M., Lee, T. Y., Leblanc, J., Duque, L., &
Makhnach, A. (2008). The study of youth resilience across cultures: Lessons from a pilot
study of measurement development. Research in Human Development, 5(3), 166–180.
[Link]

Van Ommeren, M., Sharma, B., Thapa, S., Makaju, R., Prasain, D., Bhattarai, R., & de Jong, J.
(1999). Preparing instruments for transcultural research: Use of the Translation Monitoring
Form with Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees. Transcultural Psychiatry, 36(3), 285–301.
[Link]

Van Rensburg, A. C., Theron, L. C., & Ungar, M. (2017). Using the CYRM-28 with South
African young people: A factor structure analysis. Research on Social Work Practice, 1–10.
[Link]

Willis, G. B., & Artino, A. R. (2013). What do our respondents think we’re asking? Using
cognitive interviewing to improve medical education surveys. Journal of Graduate Medical
Education, 5(3), 353–356. [Link]

CYRM/ARM Measure © 25
 Appendix A – Decision aid for measure
For each question below, make a note of the option you select.

1. What are the ages of the target individuals in your project? *

[A] 5-9
[B] 10-23
[C] 18 or older

2. Are your prospective participants able to complete a self-report measure or do you

need (or want) to involve an informant?
[D] Self-report only
[E] Informant only
[F] Both

3. Would any individuals completing the measure potentially struggle to differentiate

response options on a 5-point scale?
[G] No
[H] Yes

4. Do you think any of your respondents may have literacy/comprehension difficulties?

[I] No
[J] Yes

Response options:

1A 2D 3G 4I = CYRM-R (child version, 5-point)

1A 2D 3G 4J = CYRM-R (child version, 5-point, simplified)
1A 2D 3H 4I = CYRM-R (child version, 3-point)
1A 2D 3H 4J = CYRM-R (child version, 3-point, simplified)
1A 2E 3G 4I = PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 5-point)
1A 2E 3G 4J = PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 5-point) **
1A 2E 3H 4I = PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 3-point)
1A 2E 3H 4J = PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 3-point) **
1A 2F 3G 4I = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 5-point)
1A 2F 3G 4J = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 5-point) **
1A 2F 3H 4I = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 3-point)
1A 2F 3H 4J = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (child version, 3-point) **
1B 2D 3G 4I = CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point)
1B 2D 3G 4J = CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point, simplified)
1B 2D 3H 4I = CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point)
1B 2D 3H 4J = CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point, simplified)
1B 2E 3G 4I = PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point)

Continued... CYRM/ARM Measure © 26

1B 2E 3G 4J = PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point, simplified)
1B 2E 3H 4I = PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point)
1B 2E 3H 4J = PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point, simplified)
1B 2F 3G 4I = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point)
1B 2F 3G 4J = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 5-point, simplified)
1B 2F 3H 4I = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point)
1B 2F 3H 4J = CYRM-R and PMK-CYRM-R (youth version, 3-point, simplified)

1C 2D 3G 4J = ARM-R (adult version, 5-point, simplified)

1C 2D 3H 4I = ARM-R (adult version, 3-point)
1C 2D 3H 4J = ARM-R (adult version, 3-point, simplified)
1C 2E 3G 4I = PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 5-point)
1C 2E 3G 4J = PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 5-point, simplified)
1C 2E 3H 4I = PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 3-point)
1C 2E 3H 4J = PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 3-point, simplified)
1C 2F 3G 4I = ARM-R and PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 5-point)
1C 2F 3G 4J = ARM-R and PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 5-point, simplified)
1C 2F 3H 4I = ARM-R and PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 3-point)
1C 2F 3H 4J = ARM-R and PMK-ARM-R (adult version, 3-point, simplified)

* If the range of ages of your participants crosses age boundaries recommended by the
measures you may wish to select one of the measures for the entire group or involve
two or more, depending on how the range crosses the age boundaries. For example, if
your sample is aged 8-12, review the items in both child and youth variants and decide
whether younger children in your context are likely to be able to complete the older
version. If they may not be able to, choose the younger age version. Similarly, if your
sample is aged 10-30, you may wish to administer the youth version to individuals up to
adulthood, and the adult version for the remainder.

** There is only one level of wording of the CYRM-R for ages 5-9.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 27
 Appendix B – Ethical protocol
The following is a brief guide to ethical considerations required when using the
measure and strategies to mitigate risk. We strongly recommend that all research and
evaluations that use the measure go through a review process by a Research Ethics
Board, or equivalent community consultation process with a local advisory committee
(where no REB exists).

The measure can be administered to individuals or groups similar to any other

survey. However, some participants may experience mild discomfort or distress when
answering survey questions. Participants may also recall stressful situations, which
may trigger uncomfortable memories. To mitigate these emotional risks, participants
should be made aware of these possibilities prior to administering the measure, and
that they can pause or terminate their involvement at any time. This should be made
clear in an information or introductory letter/statement as part of a process of gaining
informed consent.

If administering the measure as part of a longer survey, be mindful of how long the
total survey will take to complete as some participants may experience fatigue when
completing lengthy surveys. This can lead to premature termination, lack of focus when
answering questions, and other issues such as participants tending to select the same
response option to proceed faster.

If you are providing the measure for participants to complete themselves, ensure
literacy skills and comprehension ability are sufficient. If you suspect participants may
struggle to complete the measure themselves, read it aloud to them. However, if you
need to ask participants whether they feel confident and comfortable completing the
measure, be mindful that this may cause embarrassment to some participants who
have lower levels of literacy.

You should ensure that participants are able to submit their responses anonymously,
even if the measure is being read aloud. No identifying information should accompany
responses. Consent forms are typically numbered and that number recorded on the
participant’s copy of the survey.

Confidentiality should be assured and if responses are stored – electronically or

as a hard-copy – this should be done securely (e.g., a locked filing cabinet or using
encryption), without identifying information, and only accessible to authorised
individuals. You should also dispose of the data within a reasonable amount of time
(the time frame may be specified by your country or organisation).

For further in-depth advice on ethical protocol related to survey administration we

recommend the Ethical Considerations page from the Cross-Cultural Survey Guidelines
group: [Link]

CYRM/ARM Measure © 28
 Appendix C – Item guide
For some individuals and organisations, it is important to know the purpose of each
item in the measure. This can be useful for those contextualising or administering
the measure, who may want to accompany items with contextually-relevant examples
to help participants understand what is being asked. It may also be useful for those
translating the measure to ensure the meaning of the item is preserved.

In general, the intention of every item in the CYRM-R and ARM-R is to measure
resilience. However, two subscales have been derived for the measures and an earlier
part of this manual clarifies which of these subscales of resilience each item is
associated with.

For information on how the items in the measures were created, see Ungar and
Liebenberg (2011) for a detailed account of the mixed methods procedures that
included data from multiple countries.

Detail for each item is given on the following pages...

CYRM/ARM Measure © 29
Item 1

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you share with people around you?
CYRM-R (youth) I cooperate with people around me
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I get along with people around me
ARM-R (adult) I cooperate with people around me
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I get along with people around me

This item assesses the sociability of the individual. In the child measure, this is operationalised as
examining the extent to which the child shares, whereas in youth and adults, this is about
cooperation and harmony with others.

Item 2

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Is doing well in school important to you?
CYRM-R (youth) Getting an education is important to me
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) Getting an education is important to me
ARM-R (adult) Getting and improving qualifications or skills is important to me
ARM-R (adult, simplified) Getting and improving qualifications or skills is important to me

This item assesses valuing education. For young children, this is phrased as asking whether
performing well in school is valued to them, while the older child and youth version directly enquires
whether education is valued by the individual. The adult measure does not assume individuals are
still in education and so more broadly asks whether knowledge improvement via qualifications and
learning skills is valued.

Item 3

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you know how to behave/act in different situations (such as
school, home, holy places)?
CYRM-R (youth) I know how to behave in different social situations
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I know how to behave/act in different situations (such as school,
home and church)
ARM-R (adult) I know how to behave in different social situations
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I know how to behave in different social situations (such as at
work, home, or other public places)

This item asks about whether the individual knows how to behave in particular situations. For
example, some may be more able to recognise the importance of being quiet and respectful in holy
places or with elders. For adults, different examples are given, and some individuals may be better
able to appreciate social norms linked to expected behaviours in different places (e.g.,
professionalism in the workplace).
CYRM/ARM Measure © 30
25
Item 4

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you feel that your parent(s)/caregiver(s) know where you are
and what you are doing all of the time?
CYRM-R (youth) My parent(s)/caregiver(s) really look out for me
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) My parent(s)/caregiver(s) really look out for me
ARM-R (adult) My family have usually supported me through life
ARM-R (adult, simplified) My family is supportive towards me

This item addresses the connection between an individual and their parent(s)/caregiver(s) or family.
For younger individuals, this relates to parent/caregiver knowledge of what an individual is doing,
while for older children and youth, this is about parents looking out for them (as opposed to not
caring or over-surveillance). For adults, the item is phrased to reflect the level of support given to
the individual by the family.

Item 5

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you feel that your parent(s)/caregiver(s) know a lot about you
(for example, what makes you happy, what makes you scared)?
CYRM-R (youth) My parent(s)/caregiver(s) know a lot about me
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) My parent(s)/caregiver(s) know a lot about me (for example, who
my friends are, what I like to do)
ARM-R (adult) My family knows a lot about me
ARM-R (adult, simplified) My family knows a lot about me (for example, who my friends
are, what I like to do)

This item also enquires about parent(s)/caregiver(s) or family connections. In this item, participants
are asked about how much their parent(s)/caregiver(s) or family knows about them as individuals. As
above, the item is not about surveillance but familiarity with personal characteristics of the
individual, such as who their friends are, what they like to do, etc.

Item 6

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Is there enough to eat in your home when you are hungry?
CYRM-R (youth) If I am hungry, there is enough to eat
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) If I am hungry, there is enough to eat
ARM-R (adult) If I am hungry, I can get food to eat
ARM-R (adult, simplified) If I am hungry, I can usually get enough food to eat

This item examines availability of food. For children and youth, this is about whether there is
sufficient food made available to them, which is the responsibility of parents or caregivers. For
adults, this is about the general availability of food in their environment.
CYRM/ARM Measure © 31
Item 7

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do other children like to play with you?
CYRM-R (youth) People like to spend time with me
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) People like to spend time with me
ARM-R (adult) People like to spend time with me
ARM-R (adult, simplified) People like to spend time with me

This item enquires about how liked the individual is. For young children, the item is phrased to be
about whether other children like to play with them. For older individuals, it is more generally about
whether others enjoy their presence, judged by a perception of how much others like to spend time
with them.

Item 8

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you talk to your family/caregiver(s) about how you feel (for
example when you are hurt or feeling scared)?
CYRM-R (youth) I talk to my family/caregiver(s) about how I feel
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I talk to my family/caregiver(s) about how I feel (for example
when I am hurt or sad)
ARM-R (adult) I talk to my family/partner about how I feel
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I talk to my family/partner about how I feel (for example, when I
am sad or concerned)

This item probes the extent to which individuals feel able to talk with their parent(s)/caregiver(s) or
family about their feelings.

Item 9

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you have friends that care about you?
CYRM-R (youth) I feel supported by my friends
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I feel supported by my friends
ARM-R (adult) I feel supported by my friends
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I feel supported by my friends

This item examines support from friends. For young children, this is phrased as asking whether
individuals have friends that care about them, while older individuals are asked directly whether
they feel supported.

CYRM/ARM Measure © 32
Item 10

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you feel you fit in with other children?
CYRM-R (youth) I feel that I belong/belonged at my school
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I feel that I belong/belonged at my school
ARM-R (adult) I feel that I belong in my community
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I feel that I belong in my community

This item examines a sense of social fit, such as asking young children whether they feel they fit in
with other children. For older children and youth, the example of school is given, where individuals
are asked to judge whether they feel (or felt, if they have since left) a sense of belonging to their
school. Adult participants are asked whether they feel they belong in their community. Those who
score lower on this item may feel unlike those around them, or outsiders in important social
environments, such as school or the community.

Item 11

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you think your family/caregiver(s) cares about you when
times are hard (for example, if you are sick or have done
something wrong)?
CYRM-R (youth) My family/caregiver(s) stand by me during difficult times
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) My family/caregiver(s) care about me when times are hard (for
example if I am sick or have done something wrong)
ARM-R (adult) My family/partner stands by me during difficult times
ARM-R (adult, simplified) My family/partner stands by me when times are hard (for
example, when I am ill or in trouble)

This item enquires about support from family members when the individual is experiencing personal
difficulties, such as sickness, when in trouble, or financial difficulties.

Item 12

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you think your friends care about you when times are hard
(for example if you are sick or have done something wrong)?
CYRM-R (youth) My friends stand by me during difficult times
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) My friends care about me when times are hard (for example if I
am sick or have done something wrong)
ARM-R (adult) My friends stand by me during difficult times
ARM-R (adult, simplified) My friends care about me when times are hard (for example,
when I am ill or in trouble)

This item is like the previous item but asks about perceived support during personal challenges from
friends.
CYRM/ARM Measure © 33
Item 13

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Are you treated fairly?
CYRM-R (youth) I am treated fairly in my community
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I am treated fairly in my community
ARM-R (adult) I am treated fairly in my community
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I am treated fairly in my community

This item enquires about fair treatment by others. For older children, youth, and adults, this is
phrased as fair treatment in their community. Unfair treatment could involve discrimination due to
group membership (racism, religion, etc) but is not restricted to this.

Item 14

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you have chances to show others that you are growing up and
can do things by yourself?
CYRM-R (youth) I have opportunities to show others that I am becoming an adult
and can act responsibly
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I have chances to show others that I am growing up and can do
things by myself
ARM-R (adult) I have opportunities to show others that I can act responsibly
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I have opportunities to show others that I can act responsibly

This item is about opportunities for demonstrating an individual’s capability. For children, this is the
ability to show others they are maturing and can now do things without assistance (doing
homework, keeping important things safe, etc). For older individuals, this is about being able to
demonstrate responsibility (such as looking after others, financial responsibility, etc).

Item 15

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you feel safe when you are with your family/caregiver(s)?
CYRM-R (youth) I feel safe when I am with my family/caregiver(s)
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I feel safe when I am with my family/caregiver(s)
ARM-R (adult) I feel secure when I am with my family/partner
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I feel secure when I am with my family/partner

This item asks about a sense of security when with family. This is about how much an individual feels
secure and safe when they are with family.

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Item 16

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you have chances to learn things that will be useful when you
are older (like cooking, working, and helping others)?
CYRM-R (youth) I have opportunities to develop skills that will be useful later in
life (like job skills and skills to care for others)
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I have chances to learn things that will be useful when I am older
(like cooking, working, and helping others)
ARM-R (adult) I have opportunities to apply my abilities in life (like skills, a job,
caring for others)
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I have opportunities to apply my abilities in life (like using skills,
working at a job, or caring for others)

This item is about feeling that there are opportunities to prepare (child and youth) or apply oneself
(adult) in life. For younger individuals, this is phrased as chances to learn or develop skills that would
be useful when they get older (such as household activities, job skills, or those involved in helping
others). For adults, the item reflects opportunities to apply abilities such as skills at home or in the
workplace.

Item 17

Measure Item text

CYRM-R (child) Do you like the way your family/caregiver(s) celebrates things
(like holidays or learning about your culture)?
CYRM-R (youth) I enjoy my family’s/caregiver’s cultural and family traditions
CYRM-R (youth, simplified) I like the way my family/caregiver(s) celebrates things (like
holidays or learning about my culture)
ARM-R (adult) I enjoy my family's/partner’s cultural and family traditions
ARM-R (adult, simplified) I like my family’s/partner's culture and the way my family
celebrates things (like holidays or learning about my culture)

This item concerns attachment to family heritage, where individuals express the extent to which
they enjoy their family’s traditions. For example, this may be the unique way in which an individual’s
family celebrates a holiday like Christmas, a birthday, or the new year.

Additional items

We recommend the measures go through a contextualisation process prior to use. This may result in
the creation of additional items that a group believes are important to assess resilience in the target
context. If new items are created, consider creating explanatory text like this to aid others who may
use the measure.

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