Abstract
Purpose: In South Africa, the field of scale development and utilisation in social work is
referred to as ‘ecometrics’, i.e. the measurement of ecological constructs. There is, however,
a lack of ecometric tools available for use by social workers, particularly in the area of
measuring strengths or resilience. Given the high vulnerability of South African youth, this
paper describes the design and validation of a youth resilience measure. Method: The Youth
Ecological-Resilience Scale (YERS), a multidimensional, summated rating scale that
measures youth resilience within an ecological framework, was designed and validated with a
diverse sample of 575 young people, using ecometric techniques. Results: The YERS shows
good levels of reliability and validity. Conclusions: The YERS is suitable for group
administration and research, and also for assessment of individuals when triangulated with
other assessment methods. Several studies of youth transitions using the YERS are described,
as well as suggestions for its use in social work practice.