Study between personality traits and character strengths in adolescents

Abstract

Personality traits and character strengths constructs share similar definitions, with elements that indicate some overlap between them, such as stability, interpretation and expression of feelings and thoughts. This study aimed to examine the relation between the Five-Factor Model of personality and character strengths in youth in Brazil. Also, the present study verified how discriminable personality traits and character strengths are from each other. Participated 832 high school students from public schools in Brazil, aged 14 to 18, 60.6% female. Results showed that the Conscientiousness trait was most associated with the character strengths of persistence, love of learning, leadership, prudence and self-regulation. The Agreeableness trait with kindness and forgiveness. The Openness trait with curiosity, creativity and beauty. The Neuroticism trait with self-regulation. The results of the present study indicate that the personality traits may be viewed as separate from the character strengths construct. Thus, our findings make it clear that the character strengths are not merely personality factors or personality traits.