Robey B. Champine

Character in childhood and early adolescence: models and measurement

In recent years, the construct of character has received substantial attention among developmental scientists, but no consensus exists about the content and structure of character, especially among children and early adolescents. In a study of positive development among racially diverse Cub Scouts in the greater Philadelphia area, we assessed the construct and concurrent validity of a new measure of character, the Assessment of Character in Children and Early Adolescents (ACCEA), among 906 Scouts (mean age = 8.84 years, SD = 1.39 years) and 775 non-Scout boys and girls (mean age = 8.92, SD = 1.64). We identified an eight-correlated-factor model as providing the best fit with our data. We further established measurement invariance and explored latent mean differences for ACCEA scores across two Scout groups (with or without a higher-level program leader), non-Scout boys and non-Scout girls. Girls were generally superior than boys on all character attributes. We further examined concurrent validity of ACCEA by correlating the character attributes with youth sense of school competence, intentional self-regulation and parental perception of youth school performance. We discuss implications for future character research and point to the value of the ACCEA measure being used by practitioners in character development programs.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Through Youth Activity Participation: Lessons from Research

Most young people in the U.S. participate in some form of structured movement activity, such as sports or dance, and these activities have the potential to support positive youth development and continued engagement in healthy activity. In this chapter, we discuss the potential benefits and risks associated with youth participation in movement activities, potential barriers and facilitators to activity participation across diverse contexts, and ways to promote sustained participation. This chapter emphasizes that development takes place within an integrated system involving youth, their social relationships, and the multiple activities in which they participate. We examine how three key elements (positive sustained youth-adult relationships, life skill development, and opportunities for leadership) can be used to help movement-based programs promote positive youth development. In particular, we recommend that programs and policy makers should work collaboratively to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant activities for young people that incorporate these three key elements, in order to better support positive youth development and healthy lifestyles.

Exploring the Out-of-School Time Program Ecology of Boy Scouts

Youth development programs, such as Boy Scouts of America, and other out-of-school time programs (e.g., sport), may represent important ecological assets in the lives of youth. Participation in such programs has been linked to indicators of positive youth development, including character virtues. Nuanced relationships exist, however, between involvement in specific sets of out-of-school time programs and indicators of positive youth development. The present study examined character virtues of youth (N = 667) who participated in Boy Scouts of America and in other out-of-school time programs (e.g., sport, band/music, or faith-based activities). Scouts participated in an average of two other out-of-school time programs. There was relatively limited variability, however, in the intensity of out-of-school time program participation. Sport was the other out-of-school time program most frequently engaged in by Scouts. In general, character virtues did not vary in relation to participation breadth or intensity. Limitations of the present study and implications for future research are discussed.

Is the Scoutreach Initiative of Boy Scouts of America Linked to Character Development among Socioeconomically, Racially, and Ethnically Diverse Youth?: Initial Explorations

Youth development programs represent key tools in the work of youth-serving practitioners and researchers who strive to promote character development and other attributes of youth thriving, particularly among youth who may confront structural and social challenges related to their racial, ethnic, and/or economic backgrounds. This article conducts secondary analyses of two previously reported studies of a relatively recent innovation in Boy Scouts of America (BSA) developed for youth from low-income communities, Scoutreach. Our goal is to provide descriptive and admittedly preliminary exploratory information about whether these data sets—one involving a sample of 266 youth of color from socioeconomically impoverished communities in Philadelphia (Mage = 10.54 years, SD = 1.58 years) and the other involving a pilot investigation of 32 youth of color from similar socioeconomic backgrounds in Boston (Mage = 9.97 years, SD = 2.46 years)—provide evidence for a link between program participation and a key indicator of positive development; that is, character development. Across the two data sets, quantitative and qualitative evidence suggested the presence of character development among Scoutreach participants. Limitations of both studies are discussed and implications for future longitudinal research are presented. We suggest that future longitudinal research should test the hypothesis that emotional engagement is key to creating the conditions wherein Scoutreach participation is linked to character development.

Childhood and Adolescence: Developmental Assets

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by P.L. Benson, volume 3, pp. 1690–1697,