Relations between family support and character strengths in adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to verify whether family support has an impact on the development of character strengths in adolescents. For this purpose, we analyzed data from 304 elementary and high school students, with ages ranging from 13 and 20, of both sexes. The results indicated that the character strengths with greater predictive power over the three factors of the Perception of Family Support Inventory (Inventário de Percepção do Suporte Familiar -IPSF) were gratitude, vitality and creativity. In addition, it was observed that some strengths were more present in the regression analyses, in two of the three factors of the IPSF, namely: love, wisdom, love of learning, creativity and modesty. It is believed that if the family is capable to offer an environment that provides room for the development of character strengths in adolescents, these positive characteristics may be experienced more frequently and in other situations.