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Differences in self-reported character strengths across adolescence.

Mitch Brown¹, Tamar Blanchard¹, Robert E McGrath¹

¹Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA.

Journal of Adolescence

|December 22, 2019

Summary

Older adolescents tend to score lower on character strengths than younger ones. Girls score higher on most strengths but show more consistent declines with age, indicating developmental shifts in character development.

Keywords:

Adolescence Character strengths Developmental differences VIA-Youth

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Adolescent Psychology

Background:

Character strengths are often viewed as stable traits.
Research on character strength development primarily focuses on adulthood.
Adolescence is a critical developmental period with limited research on character strength changes.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore developmental differences in character strengths among adolescents.
To analyze 24 character strengths across a wide age range (10-17).
To investigate potential gender moderators in adolescent character development.

Main Methods:

Cross-sectional exploratory analysis.
Utilized the VIA-Youth assessment tool for 24 character strengths.
Sample included 12,871 adolescents aged 10-17 from four countries.

Main Results:

A general pattern of lower character strength scores in older adolescents compared to younger ones.
Girls scored higher on most character strengths on average.
Girls exhibited more consistently lower scores across age groups.

Conclusions:

Adolescent character strengths show developmental variations, challenging the notion of stability.
Findings highlight gender differences in the trajectory of character strength development.
Results inform future research and interventions for adolescent character development.