The Youth Development Instrument: Overview

What is the YDI?

Building on the work of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) and the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI), the YDI is a self-report questionnaire that measures the health and well-being of Grade 11 (16-17 years of age) students in British Columbia (BC). The YDI is the product of a collaboration between the BC Centre for Disease Control, the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at UBC (Co-investigators Dr. Martin Guhn and Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl), and Simon Fraser University (SFU). In particular, the YDI builds on HELP’s ongoing work on the Early Development Instrument (EDI) and the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). The YDI team brings extensive expertise in youth development, population health measurement and monitoring, health promotion, interdisciplinary research collaboration, and partnership building.

The Youth Development Instrument (YDI) is a self-report survey administered to BC Grade 11 students. Developed in collaboration with the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at UBC, school districts, community partners, health practitioners, policymakers, and youth, the YDI was designed to collect population-level data of youth well-being indicators. Individual and contextual youth well-being and resilience indicators are measured via five dimensions on the YDI: social and emotional learning (e.g., prosocial behaviour, empathy); learning environment and engagement (e.g., school belonging, bullying); social well-being (e.g,. friendship intimacy, community belonging); physical and mental well-being (e.g., physical activity, MH concerns such as anxiety, depression, substance use; MH service use); and navigating the world (e.g., civic-mindedness, multiculturalism). The YDI also asks youth about the impacts of COVID-19.

In 2016, Dr. Hasina Samji, Dr. Naomi Dove (YDI Advisory), and a team of researchers led a series of focus groups with young adults which revealed that the major challenges for people their age included mental illness, substance use, and worries about their future. These discussions inspired the creation of the YDI in collaboration with HELP to better understand these challenges, the assets and experiences which can help mitigate their impact, and to identify a cohort of young people who may be further followed in their transition from high school into emerging adulthood. The YDI research team works directly with a group of stakeholders who provide ongoing feedback on research objectives, survey development, survey delivery, and project expansion. Among others, these stakeholders include the YDI Youth Advisory Council, Provincial Policy & Practice Advisory Board, and research partners from across BC, Canada, and around the world.