Character Strengths Scale: new validity evidence

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v18i1.3297

Keywords:

psychological assessment, psychometrics, positive psychology, personality

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify instruments used to assess the Character strengths are considered a positive aspect of personality, indicating a satisfying and authentic life. The Character Strengths Scale is the only known measure that evaluates personal strengths of Brazilians. The literature suggests that the proposed structure of 24 character strengths divided into six virtues is not empirically replicated. Studies have compared character strengths between men and women and across stages of development; however, understanding the equivalence of the instrument across groups should precede such comparisons. This study aims to test the factor structure of the Character Strengths Scale found by Noronha and Batista (2020) and evaluate the construct’s invariance among adolescents and adults, as well as between sexes in adolescents and adults. For the first objective, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was employed, which supported the tested structure. For the second, the equivalence of the scale factors between groups was evaluated using Multi-Group CFA, which identified some factors as equivalent and others as not. It can be concluded that the tested factor structure is empirically relevant and that, when comparing strength means between groups in future studies using the Character Strengths Scale, authors should pay attention to which strengths belong to invariant factors.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing: National Council on Measurement in Education. American Educational Research Association.

Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2010). Simple Second Order Chi-Square Correction. https://www.statmodel.com/download/WLSMV_new_chi21.pdf

Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834

Chen, F. F. (2008). What happens if we compare chopsticks with forks? The impact of making inappropriate comparisons in cross-cultural research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013193

Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9(2), 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5

Coyne, M. A., Vaske, J. C., Boisvert, D. L., & Wright, J. P. (2015). Sex differences in the stability of self-regulation across childhood. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 1(1), 4-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-015-0001-6

Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297-334. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310555

Czerwiński, S. K., & Atroszko, P. A. (2023). A solution for factorial validity testing of three-item scales: An example of tau-equivalent strict measurement invariance of three-item loneliness scale. Current Psychology, 42(2), 1652-1664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01554-5

Damásio, B. F. (2013). Contribuições da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória Multigrupo (AFCMG) na avaliação de invariância de instrumentos psicométricos. Psico-Usf, 18, 211-220. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-82712013000200005

Fischer, R., & Karl, J. A. (2019). A Primer to (Cross-Cultural) Multi-Group Invariance Testing Possibilities in R. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1507. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01507

Heintz, S., Kramm, C., & Ruch, W. (2019). A meta-analysis of gender differences in character strengths and age, nation, and measure as moderators. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(1), 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2017.1414297

Heintz, S., & Ruch, W. (2022). Cross-sectional age differences in 24 character strengths: Five meta-analyses from early adolescence to late adulthood. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 17(3), 356-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1871938

Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118

Littman-Ovadia, H., & Lavy, S. (2012). Character strengths in Israel Hebrew adaptation of the VIA Inventory of Strengths. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28(1), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a00008

McGrath, R. E. (2014). Measurement Invariance in Translations of the VIA Inventory of Strengths. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 32(3), 187-194. http://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000248

Milfont, T. L., & Fischer, R. (2010). Testing measurement invariance across groups: Applications in cross-cultural research. International Journal of Psychological Research, 3(1), 111-130. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.857

Neto, J., Neto, F., & Furnham, A. (2014). Gender and Psychological Correlates of Self-rated Strengths Among Youth. Social Indicators Research, 118(1), 315-327. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0417-5

Ng, V., Cao, M., Marsh, H. W., Tay, L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2016). The factor structure of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS): An item-level Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) bifactor analysis. Psychological Assessment, 29(8). http://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000396

Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: The role of gender. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8(1), 161-187. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143109

Noronha, A. P. P., & Barbosa, A. J. C. (2016). Forças e Virtudes: Escala de Forças de Caráter. Em C. S. Hutz (Ed.), Avaliação em Psicologia Positiva: Técnicas e Medidas (pp. 21-43). CETEPP.

Noronha, A. P. P., & Batista, H. H. V. (2017). Escala de Forças e Estilos Parentais: Estudo correlacional. Estudos Interdisciplinares em Psicologia, 8(2), 2-19. https://doi.org/10.5433/2236- 6407.2017v8n2p02

Noronha, A. P. P., & Batista, H. H. V. (2020). Análise da estrutura interna da Escala de Forças de Caráter. Ciencias Psicológicas, 14(1), e-2150. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v14i1.2150

Noronha, A. P. P., & Campos, R. R. F. (2018). Relationship between character strengths and personality traits. Estudos de Psicologia, 35(1), 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982- 02752018000100004

Noronha, A. P. P., Dellazzana-Zanon, L. L., & Zanon, C. (2015). Internal structure of the Characters Strengths Scale in Brazil. Psico-USF, 20(2), 229-235. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-82712015200204

Noronha, A. P. P., & Reppold, C. T. (2019). Introdução às forças de caráter. Em M. N. Baptista (Ed.), Compêndio de Avaliação Psicológica, (pp. 549-568). Vozes.

Noronha, A. P. P., & Reppold, C. T. (2021). As fortalezas dos indivíduos: o que são forças de caráter? Em M. Rodrigues, & D. da S. Pereira (Eds.), Psicologia Positiva: dos conceitos à aplicação, (Vol. 1, pp. 68–81). Sinopsys.

Noronha, A. P. P., & Zanon, C. (2018). Strenghts of character of personal growth: Structure and relations with the big five in the Brazilian context. Paidéia (ribeirão Preto), 28, e2822 https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-4327e2822

Park, N. (2009). Character Strength. Em S. J. Lopez (Ed.), The encyclopedia of positive psychology, (pp. 135-141). Blackwell.

Peixoto, E. M., & Martins, G. H. (2021). Contribuições da análise fatorial confirmatória para a validade de instrumentos psicológicos. Em C. Faiad, Baptista. M. B., & Primi, R., Tutoriais em análise de dados aplicados à psicometria (pp. 143-160). Vozes.

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.

R Core Team. (2022). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

Reppold, C., D’Azevedo, L., & Noronha, A. P. P. (2021). Estratégias de avaliação de forças de caráter. Psicologia, Saúde & Doenças, 22(1), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.15309/21psd220106

Rosseel, Y. (2012). lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v048.i02

Seibel, B. L., DeSousa, D., & Koller, S. H. (2015). Adaptação brasileira e estrutura fatorial da escala 240-item VIA Inventory of Strengths. Psico-USF, 20, 371-383. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-82712015200301

Sanchis-Sanchis, A., Grau, M. D., Moliner, A.-R., & Morales-Murillo, C. P. (2020). Effects of age and gender in emotion regulation of children and adolescents. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 946. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00946

Solano, A. C., & Cosentino, A. C. (2018). IVyF abreviado —IVyFabre—: análisis psicométrico y de estructura factorial en Argentina. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana/Bogotá (Colombia), 36(3), 619-637. https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.4681

Tetering, M. A. J. van, Laan, A. M. van der, Kogel, C. H. de, Groot, R. H. M. de, & Jolles, J. (2020). Sex differences in self-regulation in early, middle and late adolescence: A large-scale cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE, 15(1), e0227607. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227607

Weinstein, A., & Dannon, P. (2015). Is impulsivity a male trait rather than female trait? Exploring the sex difference in impulsivity. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports, 2(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-015-0031-8

Published

2024-04-12

How to Cite

Rocha, R. M. A. da, Santos, C. G., Gonzalez, H. V., & Noronha, A. P. P. (2024). Character Strengths Scale: new validity evidence. Ciencias Psicológicas, 18(1), e-3297. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v18i1.3297

Issue

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Similar Articles

<< < > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.