The goal of positive youth development is to build and strengthen assets that enable youth to grow and flourish throughout life. In this article, the definition, origins, and assessment of character strengths and ways of fostering them are discussed. Character strengths are here defined as a family of positive traits reflected in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Character strengths are important in their own right, but they additionally promote well-being and buffer against psychological disorders among youth. Good parenting, close relationships with peer and family, positive role models, positive institutions, and various youth development programs play important roles in the development of character strengths. Character strengths exist in degrees, and they can be measured as individual differences. Future studies should approach character strengths as multidimensional constructs to understand better the structure and development of character, and how it contributes to positive youth development.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, and S. Wall. 1978. Patterns of attachment: Assessed in the strange situation and at home. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
2.
Albee, G. W. 1996. Revolutions and counterrevolution in prevention . American Psychologist51: 1130-1133 .
3.
Allen, J. P., S. Philiber, S. Herrling, and G. P. Kuperminc. 1997. Preventing teen pregnancy and academic failure: Experimental evaluation of a developmentally based approach . Child Development68: 729-742 .
4.
Bandura, A. 1977. Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
5.
Baumrind, D. 1998. Reflections on character and competence. In Competence and character through life (pp. 1-28), edited by A. Colby, J. James, and D. Hart. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press .
6.
Benson, P. L., N. Leffert, P. C. Scales, and D. A. Blyth. 1998. Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating health communities for children and adolescents . Applied Developmental Science2: 138-159 .
7.
Berkowitz, M. W., and M. C. Bier. 2004. Research-based character education . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science591: 72-85 .
8.
Birch L. L., and J. Billman. 1986. Preschool children’s food sharing with friends and acquaintances . Child Development57: 387-395 .
9.
Brown, G. W., L. Lemyre, and A. Bifulco. 1992. Social factors and recovery from anxiety and depressive disorders: A test of specificity . British Journal of Psychiatry161: 44-54 .
10.
Cardemil, E. V., K. J. Reivich, and M. E. P. Seligman. 2002. The prevention of depressive symptoms in low-income minority middle school students. Prevention and Treatment 5. Retrieved from http://www.journals.apa.org/prevention/volume5/pre0050008a.html
11.
Cowen, E. L. 1994. The enhancement of psychological wellness: Challenges and opportunities . American Journal of Community Psychology22: 149-179 .
12.
Cowen, E. L. 1998. Changing concepts of prevention in mental health . Journal of Mental Health7: 451-461 .
13.
Crowne, D. P., and D. Marlowe. 1964. The approval motive: Studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley .
14.
Dahlsgaard, K., C. Peterson, and M. E. P. Seligman. Forthcoming. Toward a classification of strengths and virtues: Historical and cultural convergence? Review of General Psychology.
15.
Damon, W. 1988. The moral child: Nurturing children’s natural moral growth. New York: Free Press .
16.
Dewey, J. 1916. Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan .
17.
Dunn, J. 1988. The beginnings of social understanding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
18.
Dunn, J., and P. Munn. 1986. Siblings and the development of prosocial behaviour . Journal of Behavioral Development93: 265-284 .
19.
Durlak, J. A. 1997. Successful prevention programs for children and adolescents. New York: Plenum .
20.
Elias, M. J. 1995. Primary prevention as health and social competence promotion . Journal of Primary Prevention16: 5-24 .
21.
Gillham, J., and K. Reivich. 2004. Cultivating optimism in childhood and adolescence . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science591: 146-163 .
22.
Gillham, J. E., K. J. Reivich, L. J. Jaycox, and M. E. P. Seligman. 1995. Prevention of depressive symptoms in schoolchildren: Two-year follow up . Psychological Science6: 343-351 .
23.
Hawkins, J. D., R. F. Catalano, and J. Y. Miller. 1992. Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention . Psychological Bulletin112: 64-105 .
24.
Higgins, A., C. Power, and L. Kohlberg. 1994. The relationship of moral atmosphere to judgments of responsibility. In New research in moral development. Moral development: A compendium, vol. 5, edited by B. Puka, 190-222. New York: Garland .
25.
Hudley, C., and S. Graham. 1993. An attributional intervention to reduce peer-directed aggression among African-American boys . Child Development64: 124-138 .
26.
Hudley, C., and S. Graham. 1995. School-based interventions for aggressive African-American boys . Applied and Preventive Psychology4: 185-195 .
27.
Ilardi, S. S., W. E. Craighead, and D. D. Evans. 1997. Modeling relapse in unipolar depression: The effects of dysfunctional cognitions and personality disorders . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology65: 381-391 .
28.
Johnson, M. K., T. Beebe, J. T. Mortimer, and M. Snyder. 1998. Volunteerism in adolescence: A process perspective . Journal of Research on Adolescence8: 309-332 .
29.
Kirby, D. 1997. No easy answers: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy—A research review commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Washington, DC: Task Force on Effective Programs and Research .
30.
Koestner, R., C. Franz, and J. Weinberger. 1990. The family origins of empathic concern: A26-year longitudinal study . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology58: 709-716 .
31.
Kohlberg, L. 1981. Essays on moral development: The philosophy of moral development. Vol. 1. New York:Harper and Row .
32.
Kohlberg, L. 1984. Essays on moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Harper and Row .
33.
Kohn, A. 1997. The trouble with character education. In The construction of children’s character. 96th yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part 2, edited by A. Molnar, 154-162. Chicago: The National Society for the Study of Education .
34.
Larson, R. W. 2000. Toward a psychology of positive youth development . American Psychologist55: 150-183 .
35.
Lengua, L. J., and I. N. Sandler. 1996. Self-regulation as a moderator of the relation between coping and symptomatology in children of divorce . Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology24: 681-701 .
36.
Lochman, J. E., J. D. Coie, M. K. Underwood, and R. Terry. 1993. Effectiveness of a social relations intervention program for aggressive and nonaggressive, rejected children . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology61: 1053-1058 .
37.
Londerville, S., and M. Main. 1981. Security of attachment, compliance, and maternal training methods in the second year of life . Developmental Psychology17: 289-299 .
38.
MacLeod, A. K., and R. Moore. 2000. Positive thinking revisited: Positive cognitions, well-being, and mental health . Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy7: 1-10 .
39.
Matthews, K. A., C. D. Batson, J. Horn, and R. H. Rosenman. 1981. “Principles in his nature which interest him in the fortunes of others...”: The heritability of empathic concern for others . Journal of Personality49: 237-247 .
40.
Maudsley, H. 1898. Responsibility in mental disease. New York: Appleton and Company .
41.
Meyer, A., A. Farrell, W. Northup, E. Kung, and L. Plybon. 2000. Promoting non-violence in early adolescence. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum .
42.
Moore, C. W., and Allen, J. P. 1996. The effects of volunteering on the young volunteer . Journal of Primary Prevention17: 231-258 .
43.
Needles, D. J., and L. Y. Abramson. 1990. Positive life events, attributional style, and hopefulness: Testing a model of recovery from depression . Journal of Abnormal Psychology99: 156-165 .
44.
O’Donnell, J., J. D. Hawkins, R. F. Catalano, R. D. Abbott, and L. E. Day. 1995. Preventing school failure, drug use, and delinquency among low-income children: Long-term intervention in elementary schools . American Journal of Orthopsychiatry65: 87-100 .
45.
Park, N. 2004. The role of subjective well-being in positive youth development . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science591: 25-39 .
46.
Park, N., and C. Peterson. 2003. Virtues and organizations. In Positive organizational scholarship, edited by K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, and R. E. Quinn, 33-47. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler .
47.
Pepler, D., G. King, W. Craig, B. Byrd, and L. Bream. 1995. The development and evaluation of a multisystem social skills group training program for aggressive children . Child and Youth Care Forum24: 297-313 .
48.
Peterson, C., and N. Park. Assessment of character strengths among youth: Progress report on the Values in Action Inventory for Youth . Paper presented at the Child Trends Conference on Indicators of Positive Youth Development, Washington, DC, March 12, 2003.
49.
Peterson, C., N. Park, and M. E. P. Seligman. Forthcoming. Assessment of character strengths. In Psychologists desk reference, 2nd ed., edited by G. P. Koocher, J. C. Norcross, and S. S. Hill III. New York: Oxford University Press .
50.
Peterson, C., and M. E. P. Seligman. Forthcoming. Character strengths and virtues: A classification and handbook. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association .
51.
Piaget, J. 1932. Moral judgment of the child. New York: Harcourt, Brace .
52.
Pittman, K. J. 2000. What youth need: Services, supports, and opportunities, the ingredients for youth . Paper prepared for presentation at the White House Conference on Teenagers, Washington, DC, May 2.
53.
Radke-Yarrow, M., C. Zahn-Waxler, and M. Chapman, M. 1983. Prosocial dispositions and behavior. InSocialization, personality, and social development: Mussen’s Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. 4, 4th ed., edited by E. M. Hetherington, 469-545. New York: Wiley .
54.
Roth, J. L., and J. Brooks-Gunn. 2003. Youth development programs: Risk, prevention, and policy . Journal of Adolescent Health32: 170-182 .
55.
Saleebey, D., ed. 1992. The strengths perspective in social work practice. New York: Longman .
56.
Scales, P. C., P. L. Benson, N. Leffert, and D. A. Blyth. 2000. Contributions of developmental assets to the prediction of thriving among adolescents . Applied Developmental Science4: 27-46 .
57.
Seligman, M. E. P. 2002. Authentic happiness. New York: Free Press .
58.
Seligman, M. E. P., and M. Csikszentmihalyi. 2000. Positive psychology: An introduction . American Psychologist55: 5-14 .
59.
Skinner, E. A., and J. G. Wellborn. 1994. Coping during childhood and adolescence: A motivational perspective. In Life-span development and behavior, vol. 12, edited by D. L. Featherman, R. M. Lerner, and M. Perlmuter, 91-133. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
60.
Sprafkin, J. H., R. M. Liebert, and R. W. Poulos. 1975. Effects of a prosocial televised example on children’s helping . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology20: 119-126 .
61.
Walker, L. J., and R. C. Pitts. 1998. Naturalistic conceptions of moral maturity . Developmental Psychology34: 403-419 .
62.
Waters, E., D. Hay, and J. Richters. 1986. Infant-parent attachment and the origins of prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Development of antisocial and prosocial behavior: Research, theories, and issues, edited by D. Olweus, J. Block, and M. Radke-Yarrow, 97-125. London: Academic Press .
63.
Weissberg, R. P., and M. U. O’Brien. 2004. What works in school-based social and emotional learning programs for positive youth development . The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science591: 86-97 .
