Category: Youth Skill

Adult Rating of Youth Behavior (ARYB)

The Adult Rating of Youth Behavior (ARYB) asks staff to rate children’s and youth’s socio-emotional skills based on behaviors displayed within out-of-school time settings, as observed during several program sessions. ARYB scores are good indicators of how children and youth are likely to perform in settings where they are well supported. Staff should observe each child or youth for at least four program hours before using the ARYB. 

Download the Measurement Manual

Citation: Smith, Peck (2023). Adult Rating of Youth Behavior (ARYB). QTurn LLC.

Adult Rating of Youth (ARY)

The Adult Rating of Youth (ARY) asks staff to rate children’s and youths’ optimal socio-emotional behavioral skills based on behaviors displayed during program activities, as observed during several program offering sessions. ARY scores are good indicators of how children and youth are likely to perform in settings where they are well supported. Staff should observe each child or youth for at least four hours of program activities before using the ARY. The ARY can be used as a pre-test for program planning purposes and, also, as a post-test for assessing socio-emotional skill growth. 

Download the Measurement Manual

Citation: Smith, Peck (2023). Adult Rating of Youth (ARY). QTurn LLC.

Youth Report of Socio-Emotional Skills

The Youth Report of Socio-Emotional Skills (YRSS) asks children and youth about mental and behavioral aspects of their socio-emotional skills in general (i.e., beyond the out-of-school time program setting and into environments such as home and school). The YRSS can be used as a pre-test for program planning purposes and, also, as a post-test for assessing socio-emotional skill growth.

Download the Measurement Manual

Citation: Smith, Peck (2023). Youth Report of Socio-Emotional Skills (YRSS). QTurn LLC.

Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

In OST organizations that focus on student’s socio-emotional skills and wellbeing, pandemic conditions created new urgency to staff’s desire to know how students and caregivers were doing. While many OST organizations know how to ask families about basic needs created by the pandemic – health care, housing, food, transportation – sometimes staff are less comfortable checking in on mental health issues.

The concept of subjective-well-being (SWB) has traditionally been assessed using measures of happiness and satisfaction with life. Most of the measurement instruments developed to assess SWB use several items to assess each of several dimensions. However, for simplicity and efficiency, we recommend using only one item for each of the three dimensions: positive feelings, negative feelings, and life satisfaction.

Positive Feelings

On a scale of 1 to 10: During the past month, how often have you had positive feelings (e.g., happiness, joy, interest, calmness, and love)?

Negative Feelings

On a scale of 1 to 10: During the past month, how often have you had negative feelings (e.g., sadness, fear, boredom, anxiety, and hate)?

Life Satisfaction

On a scale of 1 to 10: During the past month, how satisfied have you felt with your life?

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