From Character Strengths to Children’s Well-Being: Development and Validation of the Character Strengths Inventory for Elementary School Children

Abstract

Although research on character strengths has flourished in recent years, the paucity of suitable quantitative instruments for the assessment of children’s character strengths limits the study of character development in childhood. The Character Strengths Inventory for Children (CSI-C) is a new self-report character inventory for children that was designed for easy administration directly to elementary school-aged children. The CSI-C provides an evaluation of 24 character strengths defined in Peterson and Seligman’s Values in Action Classification of Strengths. Data from two samples of 2,061 Israeli children aged 7–12 support the constructs of the instrument. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the 96 CSI-C items revealed preliminary evidence for a hierarchical structure with 24 lower factors nested within four higher-order latent factors: interpersonal, transcendence, intellectual, and temperance strengths. Children’s interpersonal and temperance strengths were negatively associated with mental health difficulties, and their temperance and transcendence strengths were positively associated with subjective well-being. The intellectual and temperance strengths were correlated with children’s school functioning and grit. The potential uses of the CSI-C in research and practice are discussed.

A Longitudinal Study of Spirituality, Character Strengths, Subjective Well-Being, and Prosociality in Middle School Adolescents

“…Using a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 ( very slightly ) to 5 ( very much ), participants rated the extent to which five adjectives representing positive emotions describe themselves over the last few weeks. The PANAS-C has been shown to have high reliability and validity (e.g., Ebesutani et al, 2012; Shoshani and Shwartz, 2018). For the present study, we only rely on these five positive emotions items, since we mainly focus on the link between spirituality and subjective well-being (Smith et al, 2012).…”

Relations between character strengths and subjective well-being in children and adolescents: A brief overview

“…The relations between character strengths and positive as well as negative affect have been studied in samples of children and/or adolescents from Brazil 13 , Israel 14,15,16,17 , Switzerland 18 , South Africa 19 , and Spain 20, 21 . All reported significant correlations between character strengths and positive affect were positive, which means that higher levels of character strengths were associated with higher levels of positive affect.…”

“…The relations between character strengths and global life satisfaction have been studied in samples of children and/or adolescents from Argentina 23 , Australia 24 , Austria, Germany, and Switzerland 25,26 , Brazil 13 , Ghana 27 , Israel 15,16,17 , the Philippines 28 , South Africa 19 , Spain 20, 29, 30 , Turkey 31 , and the US 7,32,33 . All reported significant correlations between character strengths and global life satisfaction were positive, which means that higher levels of character strengths were associated with higher levels of global life satisfaction.…”

Karakter Güçleri̇ Envanteri̇ Erken Çocukluk Formu’nun Türkçeye Uyarlanmasi: Geçerli̇k Ve Güveni̇rli̇k Çalişmasi

“…Bu dört faktör; Kişilerarası, entelektüellik, ölçülü olma ve aşkınlık olarak nitelendirilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda çocukların kişilerarası ve aşkınlık güçleri, ruh sağlığı problemleri ile negatif ilişkili; ölçülü olma ve aşkınlık güçleri ise öznel iyi oluşları ile pozitif ilişkili olduğu bulunmuştur (Shoshani & Shwartz, 2018). Bir başka araştırmada Shoshani ve Aviv (2012), çocukların ilkokula geçişte okula uyumları ile karakter güçleri arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemişlerdir.…”

“…Karakter güçleri ile ilgili araştırmalar son yıllarda artmış olmasına rağmen, çocukların karakter güçlerinin değerlendirilmesi için uygun niceliksel araçların olmayışı, çocukluk çağında karakter gelişimine ilişkin çalışmaları sınırlandırmaktadır (Shoshani & Shwartz, 2018). Karakterlerin güçlü yanlarına dayalı (strengths-based) değerlendirme, kişisel başarı duygusunu geliştiren, aile üyeleri, akranlar ve yetişkinlerle destekleyici ve tatmin edici ilişkilere katkıda bulunan duygusal ve davranışsal becerilerin, yeterliliklerin ve özelliklerin ölçülmesini sağlayan bir değerlendirme şeklidir (Epstein, 2004).…”