Poster #204 - Personal Character, Identity Development, and College Adjustment among Undergraduate Students

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Character strengths are adaptive individual differences that inform the ways people relate to themselves and engage with others (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2006; Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Because character strengths may inform aspects of development and adjustment that are highly salient for college adults’ performance and success, they may be especially pertinent for young adult development in a college environment. For example, identity development and ongoing attempts to explore and possibly commit to identity roles are salient during the college career (Arnett, 2000), as are aspects of well-being that include satisfaction with one's current life (Pavot & Diener, 2009) and feelings of belonging and connectivity to the college environment (Strayhorn, 2012). In brief, individual differences in character strengths of curiosity, grit, gratitude, forgiveness, and hopefulness may coincide with undergraduates’ ways of exploring surroundings, responding to the highs and lows of life, and working toward meaningful goals. We were interested in how these character strengths related to students’ self-reports of identity development and psychological well-being.
The current study addressed relations of five character strengths—curiosity, grit, gratitude, forgiveness, and hope—with college student reports of identity development (exploration and commitment), life satisfaction, personal flourishing, subjective happiness, and college belonging. Because college is a structured period for personal exploration and discovery (Côté, 2006), we expected individual differences in character strengths to be positively associated with identity exploration (1a), but we did not expect strengths to be closely associated with identity commitment (1b). We also expected character strengths to be positively associated with each measure of well-being (2a), including personal flourishing, subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and college belonging. Given previous findings suggesting that hopefulness is robustly and uniquely tied to well-being when considered alongside other strengths (Manuscript in Preparation), we expected hope in particular to be a consistent and robust predictor of well-being (2b). We accounted for covariates of demographic variables and personality traits (see Hayes & Joseph, 2003) in analyses in order to examine the unique associations of character strengths with identity and well-being.
We recruited 269 undergraduates (79.9% women) to complete an online study including standard self-reports of personality traits, character strengths, identity, and well-being. Regressions were conducted to test hypotheses (see Table 2). For identity development, results broadly supported expectations. Curiosity, gratitude, and hopefulness were linked with identity exploration (1a). Only hopefulness was related to identity commitment (1b).
For reports of personal and social well-being, results also broadly supported expectations. The strengths of forgiveness, gratitude, and hopefulness were uniquely tied to greater reports of life satisfaction, personal flourishing, and college belonging (2a). Surprisingly, grit was not related to most outcomes and was inversely associated with personal flourishing (2a). Hope was the only strength uniquely tied with each measure of well-being (2b). The findings reinforce the robust ties of multiple character strengths with aspects of identity development and well-being, which are highly salient for adjustment during the college career. Future work will benefit from considering ways these strengths predict longitudinal college adjustment, including major transitions into and beyond the college career.

Authors

• Jordan Booker, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author

• Erika Hernandez, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author

• Julie Dunsmore, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author