Contextual Influences on Youth Character Development: Evidence from Kenya, Brazil, and Canada

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

When youth are embedded in healthy nurturing contexts, they are empowered to develop strong character strengths (Benson et al. 2007, Lerner, 2003). This symposium brings together research from youth in Kenya, Brazil, and Canada highlighting the contextual factors of character. As a whole, the papers demonstrate the bidirectional nature of context and individual virtues, seeing youth as both agents in and outcomes of their environments. The first paper presents a thematic analysis of how Kenyan youth conceptualize character, their definitions, values, and perceived utility. Participants emphasized the virtues of individual contribution to the community and the research demonstrates the importance of adapting and operationalizing concepts across cultural frameworks. The second study investigates how educational environments shape students’ perceptions of justice which in turn predict communal virtues such as prosocial leadership, bravery, and fairness. Thus, the effect of context on character development happens at least partially due the environmental effects on justice expectations. The third paper demonstrates how virtues can change at the classroom level, and increases in classroom social responsibility are predicted by teachers’ practices and classroom climate. The analysis demonstrates how classrooms can be “permissive substrates” to allow for virtue growth. The fourth paper highlights how closely school climate is related to peer aggression patterns and provides longitudinal data on how successful prevention programs foster virtues that are incompatible with victimization. Together, these presentations elucidate the power of context in virtue development, highlight the value of research in diverse contexts, and advance prevention science.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Kendra J Thomas, Hope College

Individual Presentations

• Positive Youth Development Across Three Kenyan Contexts: An Inductive Approach - Presenting Author: G. John Geldhof, Oregon State University - Corvallis; Non-Presenting Author: Jey Blodgett, Oregon State University - Corvallis; Non-Presenting Author: Kelly D Chandler, Oregon State University; Non-Presenting Author: Edmond P Bowers, Clemson University; Non-Presenting Author: Kennedy K Onyiko, Maassai Mara University; Non-Presenting Author: Lawrence Allen, Clemson University; Non-Presenting Author: Candice W Bolding, Clemson University; Non-Presenting Author: Sam McQuillin, University of South Carolina; Non-Presenting Author: Alexis E Merculief, Oregon State University - Corvallis; Non-Presenting Author: Daria Thompson, University of South Carolina

• Just Environments Foster Virtues: A Longitudinal Assessment of School Climate Among Brazilian Youth - Presenting Author: Kendra J Thomas, Hope College; Non-Presenting Author: Josafá M. Da Cunha, Federal University of Parana

• Changes in social responsibility, teachers’ socio-emotional learning strategies and aggressive behaviors: A three-month longitudinal study - Presenting Author: Jonathan Bruce Santo, University of Nebraska - Omaha; Non-Presenting Author: Josafá M. Da Cunha, Federal University of Parana

• The Impact of School Climate on Children’s Peer Victimization Experiences - Presenting Author: Paweena Sukhawathanakul, University of Victoria; Non-Presenting Author: Bonnie Jean Leadbeater, University of Victoria