Character Strengths and Success in Students

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Character Strengths and Success in Students SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY N H Thompson, Dr. David Pearson & Dr. Judith Hosie • Aims • A pilot study used a battery of self report measures to investigate the relationship between character strengths and measures of well being, coping and academic achievement in a population of highly successful learners (university students) to inform a larger, longitudinal study investigating the relationships between non-cognitive strengths and successful learning in schoolchildren (ongoing). • This research aims to investigate: • Relationships between strengths possession, coping style and strengths use, and measures of academic performance. • Whether the aforementioned relationships are predictive of academic performance. • The extent to which coping style mediates the relationship between non-cognitive strengths and academic performance. • Interaction effects between strengths use and possession Results Descriptive, Correlation and Exploratory Factor Analysis techniques were used to explore the X-sectional data: Table 1. Means and Standard deviations for measures of Optimism (LOT-R), Strengths Use (SUS) and the PANAS. SOCIAL AVOID SELFCONTRL POSTVREAPPR • Background • Research suggests the possession and exercise of “Positive Traits / character strengths” is predictive of success, happiness, wellbeing, resilience and health. Using “trait strengths” has been linked to greater happiness, success and social and intellectual development. • Specific strengths have been found to be strongly correlated with, and predictive of, success in particular life domains. “Temperance strengths” or “non-cognitive / pro-social strengths” (humour, kindness, fairness, prudence, self-regulation, modesty, forgiveness) and perseverance, have been linked to academic achievement 1. • Detailed understanding of the underlying structure of good character within individuals and their developmental trajectory over time is still under investigation. The longitudinal study currently underway will contribute to the understanding of how strengths develop over time in an adolescent sample. • It is unclear whether specific strengths are predictive of flourishing in other life domains (e.g. coping), and how these might interact with or influence academic achievement. Lounsbury et al (2009) suggest that the relationship between pro-social / non-cognitive strengths and academic attainment may be explained by positive coping behaviour 2. These studies will investigate this interpretation. Fig.1MOSTANDLEASTENDORSED WAYS OF COPING (MODE) Table 2: Correlation matrix between measures of Optimism, Strengths Use and the PANAS Fig.2 MOST AND LEAST ENDORSED STRENGTHS (MODE) • VIA-IS (Strengths measure) Structure: • High cross-loadings (EFA&CFA) • EFA: 4 or 5 factors, not interpretable • VIA-IS does not FA cleanly • PA, Optimism & Strengths Use: +ve correlations (sig at 0.01 level) • NA: -ve correlations with LOT-R (sig at 0.01) • None of the investigated constructs showed any relationships with academic outcomes as measured by exam performance (e.g. Fig.3). • No relationships found between VIA-IS (or WOC) and exam results (e.g.Fig.3). Fig.3 Scatterplot of Persistence against Exam performance Conclusions and Future Directions • Method • CROSS-SECTIONAL PILOT: 72 First year Psychology undergraduates (M=24; F=48; age range 17-35, M= 20.12; SD = 2.73) from the University of Aberdeen completed a battery of self report questionnaires. Their academic data (pre and post questionnaire completion) was obtained, with consent, through student records. • LONGITUDINAL STUDY (ongoing): 190 3rd year students from 2 schools in the Aberdeen area; Data collected across 3 time points, 6 months apart; 1st time point data collected (SNAP) and currently being explored • Participants completed self-report measures of: • Strengths (Cross-sectional: VIA-IS 3, Longitudinal: SAI-Y 4) • Strengths use (SUS 5) • Coping (Ways Of Coping, WOC6) • Well-being (Positive And Negative Affect Schedule – PANAS 7) • Optimism (Life Orientation Test – Revised, LOT-R, Optimism 8 ) • Objective measures: • Participants Academic record (Grades / Exam results) • CONCLUSIONS (PILOT) • Psychometrics in line with literature: Related constructs show expected correlational relationships; Contributes to validity of Strengths Use measure • VIA-IS does not FA cleanly / consistently 9 • Conceptual Structure not supported • No relationships found between non-cognitive strengths and exam results • Data noisy; small sample; lack of variance in sample • FUTURE DIRECTIONS (LONGITUDINAL) • Longitudinal Study (underway) 190 3rd year students from 2 schools in the Aberdeen area; 1st data collection completed (Online) and currently being explored • Larger more diverse sample; range of abilities; opportunity to investigate developmental change over time • Investigation of the relationship between non-cognitive strengths and academic attainment, and whether coping explains these relationships • Use SAI-Y to measure strengths: more suitable for adolescent population; empirically derived scales. 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Using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: A longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(1), 15-19.