The role of family civic context in character development across childhood and adolescence

Abstract

Parents promote character development in many ways: by cultivating a supportive relationship, modeling the strengths they hope to cultivate, and through the ideas they communicate to their children. Given the need for developmentally sensitive assessments of contexts that facilitate character development, this study examined the role of a family civic context by examining associations between psychological needs support, parental modeling, and communication and character across elementary-, middle-, and high school ages. Using a diverse, cross-sectional sample of 2,467 youth ages 9–19, bifactor models were estimated across age groups to examine age differences in associations between parenting practices and character. Psychological needs support and communication predicted global character across age groups. At older ages, parenting practices evidenced greater specificity in promoting character strengths. Results provide insights into the distinct ways parenting strategies are associated with the development of general and specific character strengths and how these associations vary with age.