The Adult Rating of Youth Behaviour (ARYB)
The Adult Rating of Youth Behaviour (ARYB) focuses on specific observable behaviours linked with the socio-emotional learning of young people. It can be used within the context of any type of provision.
About the tool
The Adult Rating of Youth Behaviour measures the socio emotional skills demonstrated by young people in the session, as observed by the staff who regularly lead the session. The ARYB can be used to understand both young people’s development and the relation of this development to other aspects of provision (e.g. the impact of provision quality on socio-emotional behavioural skill growth).
What it does
ARYB measures young people’s ‘optimal’ skills, i.e. the best someone can do while receiving high-quality support to put these skills into practice, for example, within the youth provision setting. If your main goal is to assess socioemotional skill growth, then observational measures, like the ARYB, are recommend because they focus on the behavioural skills in the context of your provision where you are supporting their development and are sensitive to change.
When to use it
It is best to collect baseline ARYB information as soon as possible when young people first enter provision but after at least two weeks (or four hours of provision time). This is so you have time to observe them but are still able to get an accurate starting level. Later assessments may not accurately reflect young people’s baseline skills as their skills are likely to already be growing through the provision. This baseline skills information can be used to plan provision (e.g. to tailor the provision to the needs of the young people) and to better familiarise you with the young people attending provision. The ARYB can then be redone as a follow-up, shortly after or near the end of provision, to assess socio-emotional behavioural skill growth. We generally recommend waiting at least 2 months to conduct follow-up ARYB ratings. Information about socio-emotional behavioural skill growth can be used to understand both young people’s development and the relation of this development to other aspects of provision (e.g. the impact of provision quality on socio-emotional behavioural skill growth).
Formats
The ARYB is administered as a questionnaire either electronically or on paper.
Strengths and Limitations
Strengths
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The ARYB is very effective at measuring socio-emotional skill growth as it is very sensitive to change
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It is less prone to bias than self assessment tools
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It can be used with young people aged 5 to 18 years.
Limitations
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It only measures the skills in terms of young people’s behaviour within the provision, it does not measure how well these skills are transferred to other areas of a young person’s life.
Analysis
Data collected with the ARYB measurement tool can be entered into the YMCA George Williams College Data Portal to view change for individuals, cohorts and at an organisational level. An increase in scores can show that young people participating in the provision are improving their SEL skills and this is potentially because it is high-quality provision. The ARYB mean scores can also be used to inform decisions about future training or provision planning (e.g. focusing training and provision more closely on aspects that scored low).