​Kid Power

Many different tools and measures exist for identifying what’s wrong with people, especially in the field of psychology. Fortunately, in recent years, people’s strengths have also begun to receive the spotlight, with instruments being developed to assess character virtues and assets. 
 
A recent study of 2274 Israeli children investigated their character strengths (Shoshani 2019).  The analyses found that strengths tend to cluster into four core factors:

1. Intellectual Strengths: e.g., love of learning, curiosity, appreciation of beauty, creativity 
2. Interpersonal Strengths: e.g., teamwork, perspective, social intelligence, kindness     
3.Temperance Strengths: e.g., open-mindedness, prudence, persistence, self-regulation, forgiveness
4. Transcendence Strengths: e.g., zest, hope, gratitude, spirituality  
 
Results showed a negative relationship between the temperance strengths and socio-emotional difficulties, as well as between interpersonal strengths and socio-emotional difficulties. In other words, the more these particular kinds of strengths are developed in children, the more buffered they may be from social and emotional difficulties. 
 
Positive relationships were found between children’s emotional well-being and the presence of the transcendence, intellectual and interpersonal strengths.  The particular characteristics most associated with well-being were: hope, love, zest, and love of learning!Virtues such as modesty and authenticity had no correlation at all with emotional well-being for young children, suggesting that some strengths have stronger associations with mental health than other traits.  
 
Perhaps, in addition to the endless corrections offered to children in fine-tuning their behavior, we would do well to reinforce their natural tendencies towards hope, love, zest and learning.

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Did you know…
 
In New Delhi, India, 1,000 schools have added a class on happiness, starting students’ day with inspirational stories, self-care and meditation. Delhi’s Education Minister, Manish Sisodia, was inspired by Bhutan’s commitment to its citizen’s well-being through its Gross National Happiness Index, and the inclusion of a happiness-infused curriculum, now modeled after by twelve countries. 
                                                                             Check it out: 

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Happiness Class