Developmental Trajectories of Youth Character: A Five-Wave Longitudinal Study of Cub Scouts and Non-Scout Boys

Abstract

Youth development programs, such as the Boy Scouts of America, aim to develop positive attributes in youth (e.g., character virtues, prosocial behaviors, and positive civic actions), which are necessary for individuals and societies to flourish. However, few developmental studies have focused on how specific positive attributes develop through participation in programs such as the Boy Scouts of America. As part of the Character and Merit Project, this article examined the developmental trajectories of character and other positive attributes, which are of focal concern of the Boy Scouts of America and the developmental literature. Data were collected from 1398 Scouts (M = 8.59 years, SD = 1.29 years, Range 6.17-11.92 years) and 325 non-Scout boys (M = 9.06 years, SD = 1.43 years, Range 6.20-11.81 years) over five waves of testing across a two-and-half-year period. Latent growth-curve analyses of self-report survey data examined the developmental trajectories of the attributes. Older youth rated themselves lower than younger participants on helpfulness, reverence, thriftiness, and school performance. However, all youth had moderately high self-ratings on all the attributes. Across waves, Scouts' self-ratings increased significantly for cheerfulness, helpfulness, kindness, obedience, trustworthiness, and hopeful future expectations. Non-Scout boys' self-ratings showed no significant change for any attributes except for a significant decrease in religious reverence among non-Scout boys from religious institutions. We discuss implications for positive youth development and for the role of the Boy Scouts of America programming in character development.

Towards the Promotion of Positive Development among Boys in Challenging Contexts: A Mixed-Methods Study of Engagement in the Scoutreach Initiative

“…Scouts completed a modified version of the questionnaire used in the CAMP study (Hilliard et al, 2014), including measures of engagement, character attributes, self-perceived school competence, and intentional self-regulation (Wang et al, 2015a(Wang et al, , 2015b. Items were scored using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Not at all like me) to 5 (Exactly like me); higher scores indicated greater endorsement of items.…”

“…Character attribute items were from the Assessment of Character in Children and Early Adolescents (Wang et al, 2015a(Wang et al, , 2015b. This measure assesses eight character-related attributes, some of which are reflected in the Scout Law…”

Character Development: Four Facets of Virtues

“…For instance, research at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development has studied the development of character virtues in the first three decades of life in groups from Cub Scouts to cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point (e.g., Lerner, ). Across 2½ years and five waves of testing, character virtues such as helpfulness and kindness increased more in 6‐ to 12‐year‐old Cub Scouts than in non‐Scout boys; however, whereas Scouts’ scores for religious reverence were unchanged, the scores of non‐Scout boys (all of whom attended religious schools) decreased for this character virtue (Wang, Ferris, Hershberg, & Lerner, ). In another study, of West Point cadets (Callina et al., ), researchers found a character structure involving four components that reflected character virtues salient to the USMA context: Attributes related to commitment, relationships, and honor covaried positively and were negatively related to attributes related to Machiavellianism.…”

The Promotion of Character through Youth Development Programs: A View of the Issues

“…Increasingly, attributes of character -for instance, moral virtues (e.g., integrity, justice, caring, and respect), performance character (e.g., effort, diligence, perseverance, grit, and self-discipline), civic character (e.g., the knowledge, skills, and commitments involved in being an active and positively engaged citizen), or intellectual character (e.g., attributes such as love of learning, seeking truth, creativity, and intellectual humility) -have been the focus of OST youth development programs, either wholly (e.g., through character education programs) or as outcomes of efforts to enhance other facets of thriving (Berkowitz, 2011(Berkowitz, , 2012Hilliard et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015).…”