Child Character Virtues’ Relation to Parents’ Values for their Children

• In Event: 1-036 - Gratitude in youth and adults in the United States, Brazil, and Poland

Integrative Statement

The present research seeks to examine the development of select character virtues. In addition, we are interested in understanding the relations among these character virtues. To this end, we examined the association of three character attributes: optimism, future orientation, and gratitude in children. Character attributes are thought to emerge through an individualindividual process (Lerner & Callina, 2014). We investigate this process through the examination of parents’ values for their children in relation to these character attributes.

Participants include 64 North American children aged 7-14 years (M = 11.9 years; 54.1% Female; 36.8% Black) and one of their parents. Children filled out questionnaires measuring their optimism, future orientation, and gratitude levels. To examine parents’ values for their children, we provided parents with a list of characteristics. We asked them to indicate how important it was to them for their child to have each characteristic when their child became an adult. We hypothesized that parents’ ratings of particular values would be related to their children’s rating of optimism, future orientation, and gratitude. Parents reported their education level which we use as a proxy for socioeconomic status.

Results indicate that optimism, gratitude, and future orientation are not significantly related to each other. We therefore treat each of these as distinct components of character in further analyses. In this study, there were no significant age differences on these character attributes. Optimism was significantly related to socioeconomic status, β=.245, p<.05. Perhaps unsurprisingly, children from higher SES backgrounds were more likely to report being optimistic. Additionally, optimism was related to parents’ report of the importance of being respectful, β =.232, p<.05. However, this relation disappears with SES in the model. In this sample, gratitude was related to parents’ report of the importance of compassion, β =-1.624, p<.05. Again, this finding vanishes with SES included.

Our findings show that the amount a parent values initiative was positively related to future orientation β =.280, p=.05. However this association disappears when SES is included in the model. Finally, our results indicate that the extent to which parents value compassion in their child was related to the child’s level of future orientation, β =-.427, p <.05, even while controlling for SES. This is a negative relation meaning that children with higher levels of future orientation have parents who are less likely to value compassion.

It is important to understand the contexts within which children’s character develops. In this study, we have distinguished among three character attributes. Additionally, we have identified particular values parents have for their children and their relation to these character attributes.

Authors

• Lia O'Brien, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Ferlin Charles, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lia Beatriz de Lucca Freitas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jonathan Tudge, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author