Kristina Schmid Callina

The Study of Character Development: Towards Tests of a Relational Developmental Systems Model

Current conceptualizations of the nature of character development, including its content, structure, and function, are consistent with the relational developmental systems metatheory. However, there is more conceptual consensus than empirical support for these ideas. With the intention of promoting programmatic research about the nature of character development, we present ideas pertinent to devising a relational developmental systems-derived model of character development, and we suggest ways in which research testing such a model might proceed. We discuss the implications of tests of this model for the enhancement of theory and for programs aimed at promoting different facets of character.

Relational Developmental Systems Theories and the Ecological Validity of Experimental Designs

Conducting good science rests on asking good questions. In ideal situations, developmental scientists who frame their research by addressing theoretically predicated questions have the best opportunity to integratively link their empirical work to extant knowledge about how to describe, explain, and optimize intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual change [Baltes, Reese, & Nesselroade, 1977; Lerner, 2012]. However, to make such empirical contributions, questions need to be coupled with pertinent methods. Because of the fundamental importance of this link between question and method, theory becomes the primary and most important tool of the developmental methodologist [Collins, 2006; Little, Card, Preacher, & McConnell, 2009]. In short, theory should shape the selection of the methods used to address one’s questions about human development. To state this relation in the negative, when methodological preferences determine the questions one asks, then (at best) weak science is the result. Accordingly, any method – any research design, measurement approach, or statistical technique – may be useful within developmental science, depending on the theoretically-predicated question one asks. Indeed, depending on a given theorypredicated question, there may be multiple methods that might be appropriate to use to address the question. These methods may be either quantitative or qualitative. Moreover, to reduce the challenges associated with disentangling method variance and substantive variance, triangulating across multiple methods is always advisable in good scientific practice [Campbell & Fiske, 1959] and, today, such triangulation is increasingly involving mixed-methods research employing both quantitative and qualitative methods [Tolan & Deutsch, in preparation].

Longitudinal Analysis of a Very Short Measure of Positive Youth Development

As developmental scientists cease to perceive adolescence as a period of inevitable turmoil and adopt the Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents’ positive attributes. In this article we examine the longitudinal stability of the very short version of the PYD scale developed as part of the 4-H Study of PYD. Using a sample of 7,071 adolescents (60xa0% female) followed between Grades 5 and 12, our results suggest general stability of PYD across adolescence, both in terms of mean levels and rank-order stability. We also show that both a global measure of PYD and the individual Five Cs of PYD consistently correlate with important criterion measures (i.e., contribution, depressive symptoms, and problem behaviors) in expected ways. Although our results suggest weak relationships among our three criteria, we especially note that across adolescence PYD becomes more strongly correlated with contribution but less strongly correlated with depressive symptoms, and that confidence becomes more strongly related to depressive symptoms. We discuss implications for use of the present PYD measure in youth development programs.

Hope in Context: Developmental Profiles of Trust, Hopeful Future Expectations, and Civic Engagement Across Adolescence

Hopeful expectations for the future have been shown to play an important role in the positive development of youth, including youth contributions to society. Although theory and some research suggest that familial socialization may influence future-oriented cognitions, little work has focused on the possible interrelation of parent–child relationships and the development of hope, particularly during adolescence. Accordingly, the first goal of this study was to identify developmental profiles of youth with respect to hopeful future expectations (HFE) and parental trust across adolescence. Next, we explored whether these developmental trajectories were related to youth Contribution, indexed by community leadership, service, and helping attitudes and behaviors. We used growth mixture modeling to simultaneously examine trajectories of adolescents’ perceived connections with parents (indexed by parent trust) and HFE among 1,432 participants (59xa0% female) from Waves 3 through 6 (Grades 7 through 10) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. A four-profile model provided the best fit to the data, with the following profiles: Moderate HFE/U-shaped Trust; Moderate HFE/Increasing Trust; Both Decreasing; and Both High Stable profiles. We then explored whether hope-trust profiles were related to youth Contribution in Wave 7. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that the profile reflecting the greatest discrepancy in HFE and trust across early to middle adolescence (i.e., Moderate Hope/U-shaped Trust) was associated with the highest mean Contribution scores. The implications of the findings for future theory and research are discussed.

Comparing Alternate Approaches to Calculating Reliability for Dichotomous Data: The Sample Case of Adolescent Selection, Optimization, and Compensation

Estimating reliability for scales or factors is an essential data analysis step in much of the research in developmental science. In this article, we demonstrate the importance of using the appropriate statistical method and underlying correlation matrix to estimate reliability for dichotomous data that represent a normally-distributed latent factor. We used an example case of three waves of adolescent data collected from responses to the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation questionnaire (SOC; Freund & Baltes, 2002) of intentional self-regulation to illustrate how calculating composite reliability (or ω) using tetrachoric correlations provides a more accurate estimate of reliability when compared to both raw covariance-based ω, as well as raw covariance-based and tetrachoric correlation-based Cronbachs α approaches. In addition, we describe methods for calculating each of these approaches to reliability estimation, and we offer suggestions for future researchers for estimating reliability for such dichotomous data.

Developing Leaders of Character at the United States Military Academy: A Relational Developmental Systems Analysis

Abstract A paucity of literature exists on the processes of character development within diverse contexts. In this article, the authors use the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA) as a sample case for understanding character development processes within an institution of higher education. The authors present a discussion of relational developmental systems theories and relevant research areas that might be leveraged to promote the positive character development goals of USMA. They conclude with the implications of this work for informing character development research and education in other settings, including non-military institutions of higher education.

The Five Cs Model of Positive Youth Development

The growing consensus among developmental scientists argues that optimizing young people’s development requires much more than simply ensuring that they avoid negative outcomes (e.g., drug use, delinquency). We must also foster strengths that help youth thrive in their diverse ecologies. In this chapter we draw on data and research from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to discuss the benefits of promoting such strength-based perspectives in youth development programs. Our discussion focuses primarily on the Five Cs of positive youth development and on how our understanding of this model can inform social policies and enhance the experience of both practitioners and the youth they serve.

Modeling Pathways of Character Development across the First Three Decades of Life: An Application of Integrative Data Analysis Techniques to Understanding the Development of Hopeful Future Expectations

There were two purposes of the present research: first, to add to scholarship about a key character virtue, hopeful future expectations; and second, to demonstrate a recent innovation in longitudinal methodology that may be especially useful in enhancing the understanding of the developmental course of hopeful future expectations and other character virtues that have been the focus of recent scholarship in youth development. Burgeoning interest in character development has led to a proliferation of short-term, longitudinal studies on character. These data sets are sometimes limited in their ability to model character development trajectories due to low power or relatively brief time spans assessed. However, the integrative data analysis approach allows researchers to pool raw data across studies in order to fit one model to an aggregated data set. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the promises and challenges of this new tool for modeling character development. We used data from four studies evaluating youth character strengths in different settings to fit latent growth curve models of hopeful future expectations from participants aged 7 through 26 years. We describe the analytic strategy for pooling the data and modeling the growth curves. Implications for future research are discussed in regard to the advantages of integrative data analysis. Finally, we discuss issues researchers should consider when applying these techniques in their own work.

Building Hope for Positive Youth Development: Research, Practice, and Policy

Within the field of positive youth development (PYD), a key goal is to identify strengths of youth that will help explain why some adolescents are able to develop into successful young adults by working toward productive goals and selecting positive behaviors, whereas others follow developmental paths marked by problematic behaviors. In this chapter, we describe the importance of hope in positive development. We define hope as having three key ingredients: intentional self-regulation, positive future expectations, and connectedness. We provide evidence from the 4-H Study of PYD to show how these three ingredients work together to promote the Five Cs of PYD and youth contribution. We make recommendations for practitioners to incorporate or enhance each of these hope ingredients in their youth development programs as well as how to recognize hopelessness among youth and how to intervene. We conclude the chapter with priorities for youth policy, such as allocating funding for programs and program evaluations that take a comprehensive and integrative approach to youth development programming. We believe that hope should be a cornerstone of youth programming and that practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers can be intentional in promoting hope to ensure all young people have opportunities to thrive.

Human–Animal Interaction as a Context for Thriving and Coping in Military-Connected Youth: The Role of Pets During Deployment

There are close to two million children who have parents serving in the United States military. Youth in military families face unique challenges, such as stress about family deployment. Nevertheless, many military-connected youth also exhibit strength and resilience in the face of these challenges. Therefore, it is critical to identify useful resources that are available for youth in military-connected families that may promote such resilience, and how these resources can be optimized to help youth thrive in the context of parental deployment. The purpose of this study was to assess the role of positive relationships with companion animals as a resource for resilience and thriving in military families. Results suggested that attachment to an animal was associated with positive youth development for military-connected youth and with adaptive coping strategies for youth with a deployed family member. Implications of these findings for the potential role of pets as an effective contextual resource for military families are discussed.