Character Development Pilot Evaluation of Two Programs for Youth with Chronic Illness

Abstract

This article describes the pilot evaluation of two Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs for youth with child onset chronic illness (COCI), reporting how the programs influenced participants’ character development. College students with COCI led high school students with COCI through activities pertaining to different aspects of growing up with a chronic illness. Participants completed the Positive Youth Development Inventory-Short Form (PYDI-S), which measures seven domains of youth perceptions of the contribution to their development from the program. Participants reported that both programs helped them the most with personal standards, which corresponds well to character development on the full version of the Positive Youth Development Inventory (PYDI). They also had high scores on prosocial behavior and future orientation, both important domains for character development. We discuss the idea that interventions promoting character development for youth with COCI are critical for promoting a positive narrative for chronically-ill youth, their parents, and society.