The VIA Classification of Strengths and Virtues attempts to provide a comprehensive model of character based on 24 character strengths. The present study is the largest study to date exploring the structure of the 24 strengths in youth. One sample (N = 23,850) completed the VIA-Youth, a teen measure of the VIA Classification. Based on a random…

Having a purpose is a form of intrapersonal giftedness. An even rarer giftedness is motivation to positively change society or culture. This exploratory chi-square and ANOVA study reports the prevalence, age distribution, stability over time, and characteristics of two change oriented aims in American adolescents. In a sample of 270, 12%, who tend…

This study examined a group of white middle class adolescents from a high school where there exists a significant sub-group who engages in activities whose purpose is to reform society and protest what they see as social or moral injustices. (Author/RK)

There are many problems posed by aggressive youth, the harm to victims and the loss of young people into the criminal justice system and penal confinement. Aggression Replacement Training (ART) was developed by Arnold Goldstein and his colleagues as a means of working with aggressive young people to help them learn new, prosocial ways of behaving.…

Using 3 psychological scales, this study examined the level of emotional intelligence, moral judgment, and leadership of more than 200 gifted high school students who participated in an accelerative academic program or an enrichment leadership program through a university-based gifted institute. Major findings include that on emotional…

Based on the view that boys need real support in growing to manhood, especially in societies where traditional role patterns are changing, the Rock and Water program was developed in the Netherlands to focus on guiding boys ages 10 to 15 years in the growth to manhood. This paper describes the program, which is centered around the themes of safety…