Profiles of adolescent character attributes: Associations with intentional self-regulation and character role model relationships

ABSTRACT

Despite acknowledgment that character operates as a multi-faceted system of multiple attributes, few efforts have examined this system by investigating how character attributes may combine in profiles and how profiles are related to individual internal strengths and contextual assets. Using data from 552 adolescents from the Northeastern United States (M_age = 14.11 years, 60% girls, 56% identified as White), we identified five latent profiles including the character attributes honesty, humility, persistence, future orientation, and purpose (beyond-the-self life goals). Three profiles were characterized by Low, Middle, and High levels of all attributes, respectively, the fourth profile by low levels of future orientation and persistence (termed Present-oriented), and the fifth profile (termed Aspirational) by low levels of honesty and humility with high levels of future orientation, purpose (beyond-the-self life goals), and persistence. The internal strength of intentional self-regulation differentiated between profile membership, whereas prosocial socialization from a known character role model did not. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent development
• character development
• persistence
• future orientation
• honesty
• humility
• intentional self-regulation
• prosocial goals
• prosocial socialization
• positive youth development
• purpose
• relational developmental systems
• socialization

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Because data were collected through schools, they are nested. We accounted for nesting using the TYPE = COMPLEX option in Mplus. Results were nearly identical with and without this option, so we present the results from the simpler (non-nested) models. Full information regarding the other models is available from the last author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [60809]; Templeton Religion Trust [29151].

Notes on contributors

Jacqueline V. Lerner

Jacqueline V. Lerner is a Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. She received her PhD from the Pennsylvania State University. She studies the positive development of children and adolescents in the contexts of family, school and community, and the embedded relationships in these contexts that contribute to overall development. She has published widely in the leading journals in the field, and has authored or coauthored several chapters in the leading Handbooks in the field. She has collaborated as the PI or Co-PI on several national and international longitudinal investigations of the positive and character development of youth.

Caitlin Aymong Wong

Caitlin Aymong Wong is a School Psychologist at Wantagh Public Schools on Long Island, New York. She received her B.A. in Psychology at Loyola University Maryland, her Ed.M. and M.A. in School Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. Dr. Wong currently works at Wantagh High School as a practitioner. She remains active in the research community as a reviewer for School Psychology Review and is a member of the National Association for School Psychologists and the American Psychological Association. As a practitioner, she works to help adolescents gain the tools and supports necessary to learn and thrive in school and beyond.

Michelle B. Weiner

Michelle B. Weiner is the research and outreach manager for the Child Opportunity Index (COI) at the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Dr. Weiner works with users of the COI to understand how they are using the Index and the impact the COI is having at local, state and federal levels. Coming from a child development background, her work has primarily involved understanding how youth positively develop with a focus on individual characteristics and contextual assets. Weiner holds a doctorate in child study and human development from Tufts University and a master’s degree in developmental psychology from San Francisco State University. She also received a bachelor’s degree in government and politics and psychology from University of Maryland, College Park.

Sara K. Johnson

Sara K. Johnson is Assistant Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. She received her B.S. in Youth and Family Services from Michigan State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies (as well as a Certificate in Quantitative Research Methods in Psychology) from the University of Connecticut. Prior to her appointment as Assistant Professor, she was a postdoctoral fellow and Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on how adolescents and young adults develop their sense of self (e.g., identity development) and their beliefs and knowledge about society (e.g., acknowledgment of systems of power and oppression) and how they combine those two things in order to decide what kinds of civic engagement they should participate in and why.