Abstract
Positive psychology urges psychologists to ask a deeper and loftier question, what is right with children and adolescents, in addition to exploring their weaknesses. This chapter discusses a strength-based assessment approach in detail, arguing that that such an approach yields useful information above and beyond the information produced by traditional measures of psychopathology. Some salient measures of strengths are listed, and in particular the VIA Youth Survey, which is used to determine an individual’s signature strengths, is discussed in detail. Previous findings have suggested that the frequent use of signature strengths is associated with greater well-being. This assertion has not been tested widely with children and adolescents. The chapter presents results of three intervention studies including one that has demonstrated that a multi-informant approach (i.e., strengths identified by teacher, parent, and a peer) of assessing signature strengths that boosts well-being and social skills. The chapter concludes with practical strategies for professionals to incorporate various ways to assess and develop strengths of children and adolescents.
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Notes
- 1.
CSA Illumina can be accessed at: http://www.csa.com
- 2.
Conducted in compliance with the Research Services of the Toronto District School Board.
- 3.
Students were asked compared to their peers, how would they rate their academic performance in general on a scale of 1 = weak to 5 = excellent.
- 4.
* p < .05; ** p < .01.
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Acknowledgements
We are deeply thankful to Carolyn Lennox, Ruth Baumal, Joy Reiter, James Bowen, Tamara Kornaki, Aarti Kumar, Nina Vitopolous, Peter Chang, and Neal Mayerson for their support in the running of the intervention studies.
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Appendices
Appendices
1.1 Appendix 6.1
Sample feedback report: Signature strengths of your child
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Zest, Enthusiasm, and Vitality: You are an energetic, cheerful, and full-of-life person. You approach most things with excitement and enthusiasm. Nothing is done half-way or half-heartedly for you. You wake up most mornings feeling energized and happy. The enthusiasm and passion you bring to activities often attract others to join you. When you experience something well done, you feel inspired and motivated.
Balance: Too much zest and enthusiasm can make you overactive and can cause social challenges with peers who may experience you as “intense”. On the other hand, if you do not use this signature strength, you will come across as passive and inhibited, maybe even withdrawn.
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Love of Learning: You love to learn new things – in school or on your own. You make very good use of opportunities where you can gain knowledge about skills, concepts, ideas, and facts. You have always enjoyed school and reading. When it comes to learning, you are persistent; even if you get frustrated or distracted, you refocus and don’t give up until you have mastered the topic or skill.
Balance: Too much use of this signature strength may result in less participation in fun extra-curricular activities. Also, overuse of this strength could compromise your social interactions – you could be considered a geek who knows everything but isn’t much fun to hang out with. Then again, a lack of “love of learning” may keep you naively uninformed and unaware of many facts of life.
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Humor and Playfulness: It is very easy for you to find opportunities to laugh, be witty, playful, and humorous in most situations. You are known for bringing smiles to other people and making them comfortable. You are also very good at seeing the lighter side of most situations and therefore use humor to take the edge off a stressful situation. Your sense of humor bonds you with others.
Balance: An overuse of this signature strength may find you expressing playfulness and humor in some situations that require demonstration of other strengths – such as self-regulation or caution. Moreover, use of playfulness and humor during classroom activities may distract you and others, and you may not be able to attend specific details of a challenging assignment. On the other hand, a lack of playfulness and humor may make you too serious and inhibited and it may impact your interpersonal relationships.
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Leadership: You excel at leadership tasks and activities. You are very good at organizing group activities and seeing that they happen. That is why you are the one children like to follow or often prefer that you take the lead. You also make everyone feel included. As a leader, whenever differences or conflicts occur, you are able to resolve these amicably and keep the harmony of the group intact. In fact, you are often able to bring best out of every member.
Balance: An overuse of this strength may show you as bossy or dominating. A lack of this strength may show overly compliant behavior or lack of necessary independence.
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Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence: You are very good at perceiving and appreciating beauty and excellence in many areas of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science. Display of excellence inspires you. You love to incorporate things of beauty in your surroundings. You feel at ease when you are amid art or watching a great performance.
Balance: An overuse of this strength may not let you be sensitive to those who do not have access to great art or performances and are more concerned with meeting basic needs of everyday living. Also, an overuse of this strength may give other people the impression at times that you are bit snobbish and have an elitist attitude. An underuse of this strength may manifest in naïve ignorance or disrespect of great performances (including in sports) or pieces of art.
1.2 Appendix 6.2
Signature strength action project – Years resolution: Using my signature
Dear Child: Visualize what kind of person you would like to be in 2011? Perhaps nicer, kinder, more social, inquisitive, spiritual, courageous, playful, knowledgeable, modest, cheerful and perhaps more engaged…etc. Think and consult with your parents and friends; how you could use your signature strengths to become that person? Briefly describe your plan below. What exactly you would like to do? How frequently? What kind of support you would like from your parents and friends in making this plan a success? We would like you to complete this by June 2011. What are some timelines and phases of this plan (beginning, middle and ending)? What would happen if you become that person?
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Three things you like (or dislike) about your signature strength profile?
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Rashid, T. et al. (2013). Assessment of Character Strengths in Children and Adolescents. In: Proctor, C., Linley, P. (eds) Research, Applications, and Interventions for Children and Adolescents. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6398-2_6
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