Displaying character strengths in behavior is related to well-being and achievement at school: Evidence from between- and within-person analyses

ABSTRACT

In two studies, we establish the association between different assessments of character strengths (i.e., traits, habitual and daily behavior at school) with school-related well-being and achievement. Study 1 (N = 414, mean age = 14.14 years) demonstrated that habitual strengths-related behavior at school accounted for unique variance in well-being at school and in achievement beyond the influence of the respective character strength trait. Further, the desirability of certain strengths (e.g., perseverance, fairness, forgiveness, and humor) at the classroom level accounted for additional variance in students’ well-being. Study 2 (N = 186, mean age = 14.27 years) used a diary design across five days to replicate the between-person associations and study within-person associations. Results revealed that daily strengths-related behavior predicted well-being on the following day. Overall, the results underline the importance of strengths-related behavior at school and suggest that all 24 character strengths are relevant for well-being at school.

KEYWORDS:

• Character strengths
• VIA-Youth
• positive education
• adolescence
• school satisfaction
• achievement
• accomplishment
• strengths use

Disclosure statement

Willibald Ruch is a Senior Scientist at the VIA Institute on Character.

Data availability statement

Participants of these studies were told that the data would not be shared outside of the research team, so data unfortunately cannot be shared publicly.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Materials. The materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/hcjbg/.

Notes

1. The participants that were excluded from the analyses did not differ from the ones included regarding age or sex (p ≥ .524). However, excluded participants were more likely to attend schools with basic requirements (χ² = 56.45, p < .001) and to be non-native speakers (χ² = 4.84, p = .029).

2. However, none of the conclusions were altered when these variables were not controlled for.

3. In most cases, the participants dropped out from the diary part of the study because the teacher was not able to administer the diaries (i.e., three out of 16 classrooms were excluded). The participants that were excluded from the analyses did not differ from the ones included in age, sex or in speaking German as a native language (p > .264). They were, however, more frequently attending schools with basic requirements (χ² = 56.45, p < .001).