Character Strengths Research Articles

Strengthening Parents' and Children's Wellbeing Through Positive Psychology: A Qualitative Study of Parents' Experiences of a Structured Training in Mindfulness and Character Strength

Few studies have examined how positive psychology can be implemented in a family context. Further, there is a lack of qualitative research of participant's experiences of mindfulness and character strengths. This study examined how Flourishing Families, a structured training in mindfulness and character strengths, may improve parental wellbeing and family life. Data were gathered through questionnaires and a total of 37 parents participated. A qualitative thematic analysis was used to examine the parents' experiences. Three main themes arose from the analysis: positive, negative and ambivalent experiences. The results demonstrated that a majority of the parents experienced positive effects on their wellbeing, parenthood and family dynamics after the training. Some parents reported stress and performance anxiety while others were uncertain if they had benefited from the course. These findings offer insights into how individuals experience mindfulness and character strengths and shed light on some common obstacles with the practices. The results contribute to the positive psychology literature by offering insights into how parents build their wellbeing and grow as parents.

Character Strengths, Coping, and Addiction Recovery: a Mediation Analysis

Character Strengths, Coping, and Addiction Recovery: a Mediation Analysis

Validity and reliability of the agentive steadfastness index.

Agentive steadfastness is a hitherto unarticulated and unmeasured construct, although clinicians may have drawn intuitively on it in anticipating clients' prognosis and anticipated responsiveness to adverse events. Following the conceptualisation and articulation of the agentive steadfastness construct and a measure thereof, the current study examined the validity and reliability of the agentive steadfastness index (ASI) among responding adult social media users (n = 511). Results confirmed convergent validity between agentive steadfastness and closest related psychological constructs, which were resilience (r = .715) and character strength (r = .704). Its discriminant validity was observed with other related but notably distinct psychological constructs, which were anxiety (r = -.599) and ego-strength (r = -.244). Temporal stability was confirmed over a period of 6 months (r = .763). The ASI showed good internal (Cronbach alpha = .937) and split-half reliability (r = .838) and a low standard error of measurement of 7.57 points within a theoretical range of 190 points. These results suggest that the ASI is a valid and a reliable measure of agentive steadfastness. Equipped with the ASI, further research is enabled on agentive steadfastness as a psychotherapeutic target and its relations with various aspects of personality, prognosis and adversity.

Cultivating Character Strength: Multicultural Perspectives in Islamic Education

This study aims to describe efforts to strengthening the character of nationality through multicultural Islam education. As well as to describe the strengthening of the character of nationality through the multicultural Islamic education based on the application of the Sila on Pancasila in Mambaul Hikam Junior High School Situbondo. This study focuses on strengthening the character of nationality through Multicultural Islamic Education base of sila on pancasila. Data collection techniques used are interviews, participant observation (Participant Observation) and documentation techniques. The data that have been obtained from the informant are then analyzed. The results of this study indicate that the strengthening of the character of nationality through the education of Multicultural Islam is by implementing the character of nationality base of sila pancasila; First, dedicating the Islamic culture on the santri based on the first sila pancasila, second, instilling the Islamic-owned humanitarian character based on the second sila Pancasila, third, instilling the attitude of Gotong Royong according to the third Sila Pancasila, fourth, instilling the character of Islamic suspected leaders based on the fourth Pancasila, fifth, instilling social-character social-based and religious slabs. The application of Pancasila's sila to strengthen the character of nationality through Islamic education is also to keep harmony, creating a high tolerance, and keeps diversity differences so as not to be easily split among others.

P40: Character strengths as protective factors for the psychological well-being of grandparents

Objective:The aim of this study was to comprehend the role of character strengths as protective factors of grandparents ́ psychological well-being. Following the Lazarus and Folkman's stress model, our analyses incorporated three groups of variables (sociodemographic data, stress, and protective factors). Method: A sample of 536 grandparents participated in the study, which an average age of 70.23 (SD = 7.17). We conducted staged stepwise regression analyses to test our hypotheses.Results:Our results evidenced that younger grandparents and those providing supplementary care showed higher levels of psychological well-being than non-caregivers. Moreover, the analyses suggested that sociodemographic variables and the caregiving role lost their significance when psychological resources were taken into account. The character strengths of optimism, courage, humor, justice, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence explained the 32.7% of psychological well-being variance.Conclusions:Our study stands out the influence of character strengths on the well-being of grandparents who develop a role as supplementary caregivers for their grandchildren. It is essential to carry out psychoeducational programs that enhance the resources that can benefit the psychological well-being of grandparents.

“Who Am I”: The Role of Character Strength in Self-Awareness Emerging Adulthood

Previous research shows that self-awareness is important for emerging adulthood. Individual knowledge of himself is required, specifically the strength of his character, to increase self-awareness. For this reason, this research shows the role of emerging adulthood character strengths on self-awareness. The research was carried out using a non-experimental quantitative approach with a research design in the form of a survey. Sampling was done using simple random sampling. The measuring instruments used are the Indonesian version of character strength developed by the VIA Institute via the viacharacter.org page formulated by Peterson & Seligman (2004) and the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire (SAOQ) created by Sutton (2016), which researchers adapted. These two measuring instruments have been proven to be valid and reliable in measuring the selected variables. Data collection was carried out using Google Forms, and a total of 142 participants were used for hypothesis testing. Hypothesis testing using a simple linear regression test shows that character strength plays a significant role in predicting emerging adulthood self-awareness with a predictive power of 64 per cent, and the direction of the relationship between the two is in the same direction. This means that the higher the strength of character, the greater the self-awareness. Thus, it is known that the true potential of emerging adulthood can be maximized if individuals are aware of their character strengths. This is because character strength can be an element in self-exploration and self-understanding. Research suggestions are attached.

Personality’s Self-Worth as a Resource Process and State

The aim of the article is to characterize the resource content of a personality’s sense of self-worth in empirical way. Methods. The study was implemented according to Bayer’s model, which involves transforming the problem into the form in which it will have a solution, and enables the practical application of the results. In the empirical study, ten psychological questionnaires were used, which made it possible to determine the following types of psychological resources of a person in empirical way: personal resources, interpretive psychological resources, existential resources, “strengths of character” resources, motivational resources, resources of the psychological survival, uncertainty tolerance resources, resources of relationship, coherence. The sense of self-worth was empirically determined according to the “self-worth” scale of the Existence Scale method by A. Lengle. The following methods of mathematical and statistical analysis were applied: predictor analysis and analysis of “causes and effects” to characterize self-worth as a process, multifactor and cluster analysis as a state. Research results. According to the analysis of predictors, self-worth trends are determined by two resources – the psychological resource of “responsibility” and the existential resource of “belief”; according to the results of the analysis of “causes and effects”, self-worth is the effect of two resources – the psychological resource of “responsibility” and the existential resource of “belief”; the structural resource model of self-worth is three-factor: factor 1 – resources of “strengths of character”, “desire to be involved in a common cause” and “sensitivity in relationships”; factor 2 – interpretive psychological resources of “the intention of wisdom”; factor 3 – existential resource of “belief”; according to the results of the cluster analysis, the sense of self-worth and the existential resource of faith belong to the same cluster. Conclusions. The study’s results make it possible to confirm self-worth empirically as an existential reality of the personality, manifested in the ability to be free and make choices according to one’s values and beliefs. The phenomenon of self-worth should be characterized not only through its importance in the achievement of virtues by a person but because of explanation of the reasons for predicting one’s own harmony. The resource content of self-worth makes it possible to characterize it as a process of self-discovery and reinterpretation of the meaning of events, enabling non-repetition of decisions recognized as erroneous and a state of free choice.

The Effectiveness of Positive Group Psychotherapy for Improving Psychological Well-Being in Peer Support for People with HIV/AIDS on Medan Plus In Medan City

Peer supporters who are living with HIV/AIDS play a crucial role in assisting and exchanging information with other individuals living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The desire to contribute more effectively motivates PLHIV to become peer supporters. However, they often encounter challenges that affect their psychological well-being while fulfilling their responsibilities. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of group positive psychotherapy in enhancing the psychological well-being of peer supporters among PLWHA. The study employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design, utilizing a non-probability sampling method for data collection. The participants included an experimental group (n = 10) and a control group (n = 10). The positive psychotherapy group module comprised five sessions, covering topics such as positive introduction and gratitude journaling, character strengths and signature strengths, hope and optimism, altruism, and meaning and purpose. The Psychological Well-Being Scale-27 (PWBS-27) was used for measurements. Data analysis involved the application of the Mann-Whitney nonparametric statistical test. The results indicated a significant improvement in psychological well-being among the experimental group compared to the control group after undergoing the positive psychotherapy intervention (U = 6, Z = -3.327, p < .001, r = .74). Therefore, the group positive psychotherapy demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing the psychological well-being of individuals supporting people with HIV, yielding a relatively high effect size.

Determinants of Residential Satisfaction During the Initial Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Xiangyang City, China

Objectives: To explore the impacts of psychological character strengths, self-efficacy, and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on residential satisfaction at the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.Methods: To achieve the study aim, we collected data from 281 observations from Xiangyang City, China, via an online survey. Data were analyzed using linear regression.Results: Character strengths and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases significantly impacted residential satisfaction. While self-efficacy did not directly impact residential satisfaction, it moderated the relationship between the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and residential satisfaction. The control variables of social trust and shared value positively impacted residential satisfaction, and their influence on residential satisfaction was higher than that of character strengths. The sociodemographic variables of marriage, age, educational attainment, and housing area per capita also impacted residential satisfaction significantly. However, strong ties and weak ties became insignificant variables due to social distancing strategies.Conclusion: The study findings offer insights for local governments to enhance residential satisfaction in the community to avoid social panic during unpredictable threats or future pandemics.

Good Inspiring The Strength of Enterpreneurship Character

The inspiration for the strength of entrepreneurial character is the breath or encouragement to continue to think creatively from someone in creating something new and different. Inspiration for entrepreneurial character can occur within the framework of cultural interactions that flow naturally and informally with people's lives. This research aims to map the inspiration of entrepreneurial power and analyze the factors that underlie the process of cultural interaction. The research was designed in a qualitative design with data collection methods in the form of observation, in-depth interviews. Data analysis was carried out by manual reduction, display and interpretation of data. The results of the study show that inspiration runs in the entrepreneurial process which is characterized by the strength of social interaction that is increasingly attractive and gives interest so that the business is progressing and growing every year. The inspiration for the power of entrepreneurship cannot be separated from the role of cultural interaction presented by the entrepreneur personally, both formally and informally. The limitation of this study is that the scope of the study is limited to one community group. It is possible to find comparisons by studying in a wider space.

The impact of medical staff’s character strengths on job performance in Hangzhou hospitals

BackgroundImproving job performance has a significant effect on the quality of medical services and ensuring people’s health.PurposeThis study explores the influence and mechanism of the character strengths and career callings of medical staff as well as the intermediary role of such career calling.MethodologyA cross-sectional survey was conducted of 414 healthcare staff members in public hospitals in Hangzhou. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical linear regressions were used to analyze the medical staff’s job performance and related factors, and structural equation modeling path analysis was used to explore and validate the influence and mechanism of character advantage and career calling on job performance.ResultsThe results show that medical staff character strengths have a positive impact on job performance. Path analysis shows that character strengths indirectly affect job performance, and career calling plays a partial mediating role in character strengths and job performance.ConclusionThe results show that good personalities promote job performance, and the association is more significant under a high sense of career calling.

Paragons of character-Character strengths and well-being of moral, creative, and religious exemplars.

Which traits best describe individuals who are recognized as exemplary in different domains? And can self-rated positively valued personality traits distinguish such individuals from the general population? The study of exemplary individuals' personality traits traditionally focused on general and broad traits. Using character strengths, which are narrower and designed to describe desirable behavior, could provide new insights. In this study, we examined 204 outstanding individuals-exemplars who received or were nominated for a public award recognizing their exemplary behavior (e.g., a Carnegie Rescuers Award; n = 119), individuals holding a patent (n = 62), and individuals living in a religious order (n = 23). We compared these exemplars to comparison samples matched based on demographic variables. All participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing character strengths and well-being (e.g., satisfaction with life). Results showed that the three groups of exemplars differed meaningfully in their character strengths and well-being from the matched comparison groups. Compared with matched counterparts, moral exemplars scored higher on the strengths related to the virtues of courage, humanity, and justice as well as the character strength of humility, creative exemplars scored higher on the character strengths of creativity and honesty, and religious exemplars scored higher on gratitude and spirituality. Overall, our findings suggest that character strengths are a useful framework for studying exemplary behavior.

Revising the VIA-Youth: I. Development and interrater convergence

ABSTRACT The VIA-Youth (Park & Peterson, 2006) is perhaps the most commonly administered youth measure of the Peterson and Seligman (2004) character strengths. This article is the first in a series describing revision of the VIA-Youth, with the goals of making the development process more transparent, targeting scale unidimensionality, achieving measurement invariance, and extending the age range to 8–17. A sample of 286 youth in three countries completed 198 candidate items, from which a 98-item inventory was developed. Ratings of strengths were provided for 250 of the youth by 202 parents and 164 teachers. The relative size of relationships between informants was related to youth age, and to ratings of the observability and evaluativeness of the strengths, in the expected direction. The findings suggest youth self-report of character strengths and ratings by significant others are not highly related, but are consistent with prior studies of informant convergence in youth ratings.

Teaching Kindness and Compassion: An Exploratory Intervention Study to Support Young Children’s Prosocial Skills in an Inclusive ECEC Setting

In this exploratory intervention study, the aim was to teach 5–7-year-old children prosocial skills in an inclusive Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) setting. The intervention programme was based on previous studies and helps fill a gap in how to promote prosocial behaviour in an ECEC setting encompassing children with diverse needs. The theoretical framework draws on research on character strengths in the field of positive psychology, particularly what the literature refers to as the strengths of the heart, namely kindness and compassion. The study follows the methodological framework of pragmatism and a mixed-methods research perspective. Research methods include questionnaires and interviews with children (n = 23), some of their guardians (n = 8) and ECEC teachers (n = 2). The results were two-fold. With the picture-based questionnaire, the pre–post measures showed little advancement. However, individual interviews revealed developments in children’s prosocial thinking that also translated into concrete actions. These findings were further supported by the positive feedback received from teachers and guardians. The contents of the programme can be integrated into daily, inclusive ECEC pedagogy. Methodologically, the intervention design serves as a starting point for the further development of data collection practices that capture children’s voices in ECEC.

Which positive personality traits do people want to change?

Most people want to change some of their personality traits, typically those they and others perceive as lacking. However, past research focused on student samples and higher-order traits and has not fully explored the attributes of traits that predict change goals. As a replication and extension of previous findings, two studies examined (1) whether people want to change their character strengths and how character strengths change goals relate to (2) character strength levels, (3) age, and (4) well-being. Further, we examined which (5) attributes of character strengths, such as their association with morality or well-being, predict change goals. Participants (Study 1: N = 2,792 German-speaking adults, 79.2% women, median = 46 years; Study 2: N = 6,787 English-speaking adults, 67.0% women, median = 32 years) completed measures of character strengths, character strengths change goals, and well-being. A subsample ( n = 1,739) provided informant ratings. Results showed that participants wanted to increase all 24 character strengths. Most change goals showed negligible associations with participants’ well-being and age. Except for spirituality, participants—especially the less happy—wanted to change those character strengths they lacked. The character strengths’ relationship with well-being, but not their moral value, predicted the goals to change them.

Positive relationships of character strengths with fitness and physical activity in primary school children

ABSTRACT Objective: This study is the first to examine the relationship between character strengths, objective physical fitness, and physical activity in primary school children. Design: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 and 2017 at a school in Japan. Main Outcome Measures: We obtained informed consent from 236 fourth-grade students; 122 fifth-grade students; and 142 sixth-grade students. After excluding participants with missing data, 473 children (247 boys and 226 girls; aged 9–12 years) with informed consent were included in the study. We measured character strengths, physical fitness, and/or physical activity of fourth- to sixth-grade participants. Results: Among boys, the total score of physical fitness was significantly associated with perseverance-honesty, courage-ideas, compassion-gratitude, and fairness-care (p < 0.05). Among girls, the total score of physical fitness was significantly associated with perseverance-honesty, courage-ideas, and compassion-gratitude (p < 0.05). Regarding the relationship between character strengths and physical activity, perseverance-honesty was significantly associated with total steps and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), whereas courage ideas were significantly associated with total steps (p < 0.05) in boys. In girls, perseverance-honesty was associated with MVPA (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings revealed that character strengths are positively associated with objective physical fitness and physical activity in primary-school children.

18 Improving Job Interview Skills in Autistic Youth Using a Combined Intervention Approach Inspired by Positive Psychology

Objective:Nearly 85% of adults on the autism spectrum are unemployed, although nearly 70% of those who are unemployed express a desire and willingness to work. The job interview has been identified as a significant obstacle to obtaining employment by young adults on the spectrum. A growing field of research has been focused on evaluating innovative training tools to improve interview skills. Our previous work shows that a virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) tool improves certain job interview skills (such as sounding professional, establishing rapport), but does not improve the ability to speak about personal strengths and abilities. The current study combined VR-JIT with a new training tool: Kessler Foundation Strength Identification and Expression (KF-STRIDE), an intervention grounded in principles of positive psychology. KF-STRIDE targets identification of personal character strengths and expressing those strengths to employers in a socially appropriate way.Participants and Methods:The current study evaluated data from 20 autistic youth, randomized to an experimental group (n=10) and a services-as-usual (SAU) control group (n=10). Those in the experimental group participated in a 12 session intervention (9 sessions using VR-JIT and 3 sessions in KF-STRIDE). Each session was roughly one hour. Job interview performance was assessed by video-recorded mock job interviews rated by blinded assessors pre- and post- the intervention. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to examine differences in job interview skills from baseline to follow up in both groups.Results:The intervention group showed a significant improvement from baseline to follow-up in job interview skills in general (p = .004), and specifically sharing strengths about themselves to a future employer (p = .004). No significant differences were seen from baseline to follow-up in the SAU group. Conclusions: Individuals on the autism spectrum are significantly underemployed, which negatively impacts one’s ability to lead an independent life. Two innovative tools: VR-JIT and KF-STRIDE successfully improved job interview skills, including the ability to identify and express personal strengths. These findings indicate that these combined tools may help to improve employment skills for individuals on the autism spectrum.

Resiliensi Remaja Korban Kekerasan Seksual di Kota Langsa

This is a new author's manual and a template for As-Syar’i: Jurnal Bimbingan &amp; Konseling Keluarga. Sexual violence can occur from various circles, including toddlers, children, adolescents and adults. The impact of sexual violence causes various psychological, physical and social problems. Adolescents are more susceptible to sexual violence because of unstable thinking and influencing relationships. One of the provinces that is ranked as prone to sexual harassment is Aceh. According to the Regional Technical Implementation Unit for the Protection of Women and Children (UPTD PPA) Aceh recorded cases of sexual violence against women in this region from January to September 2021 reached 697 cases. Even though they have been treated by various parties, there are still victims who feel ashamed, afraid and they often lock themselves in the house, tend to withdraw from their environment, there are also those who are able to be active again in their previous activities, and they consider the traumatic experience to be a traumatic experience. they experienced before is one of life's lessons. The purpose of this study is to see a picture of the resilience of adolescents who are victims of sexual violence. This study took the subject of the category of teenagers who experienced sexual violence. The study used in-depth, semi-structured interviews with coding analysis. The results show that the subject in the process of resilience is influenced by factors, namely social support, finding solutions to problems, self-regulation, strength of character and optimism. The conclusion of the study is that it is able to show the process of resilience and what factors affect resilience in victims of sexual violence. Keywords: resilience, adolescents, sexual harassment.

Positive addiction recovery therapy: a replication and follow-up study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to see if the affirmative results seen in the pilot study of the positive addiction recovery therapy (PART) programme are replicable and durable given a new cohort of participants. PART is a programme of work designed to improve the recovery and well-being of people in early addiction recovery. Its foundation is in the G-CHIME (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life and empowerment) model of addiction recovery. It also uses the values in action character strengths and includes a set of recovery protection techniques.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed method experimental design, incorporating direct replication and a follow-up study. Measures for recovery capital, well-being and level of flourishing are used to collect pre-, post- and one-month follow-up data from participants. The replication data analysis uses the non-parametric Wilcoxon test, and the follow-up analysis uses the Friedman test with pairwise comparison post hoc analysis. The eligibility criteria ensure participants (n = 35) are all in early addiction recovery, classified as having been abstinent for between three and six months.FindingsThis study found a statistically significant improvement in well-being, recovery capital and flourishing on completion of the PART programme. These findings upheld the hypotheses in the pilot study and the successful results reported. It also found these gains to be sustained at a one-month follow-up.Practical implicationsThis study endorses the efficacy of the PART programme and its continued use in a clinical setting. It also adds further credibility to adopting a holistic approach when delivering interventions which consider important components of addiction recovery such as those outlined in the G-CHIME model.Originality/valueThis study adds to the existing evidence base endorsing the PART programme and the applied use of the G-CHIME model.

The Perception of Beauty and the Concept “Beauty” in Russian-Speaking Students of Psychology

In positive psychology, seeing and experiencing beauty is one of the character strengths that indicates the presence of positive mental health and subjective well-being. The article presents the results of a study of the relationship between susceptibility to beauty and the concept of «beauty» among Russian-speaking psychology students, and also built a preliminary field structure of the concept “beauty”. The sample consisted of 62 subjects aged 18 to 54 years (15 men and 47 women). The study used the Method of Free Association and the Engagement with Beauty Scale. The positive relationship was confirmed between the level of susceptibility to inner beauty and the number of associations to the word “beauty” associated with inner beauty. Additionally, positive relationships were found between the level of general susceptibility to beauty and the number of associations per word «beauty» associated with inner beauty, as well as between the level of susceptibility to the beauty of ideas and the number of associations per word “beauty” associated with inner beauty. Additionally, results related to differences between men and women were obtained. Women are more receptive to the beauty of nature and to the inner beauty of a person, while they give more associations for inner beauty than men. In the field structure of the concept «beauty», the core is the association word nature (31); near periphery of the association words love (25), eyes (19), aesthetics (14), art (14), smile (13), life (12), happiness (11), music (11), woman (11), flowers (10), soul (10), harmony (10), kindness (10).