Promoting character strengths through the Growing up Strong Program: The students’ perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to report on levels of satisfaction, applicability and subjective experience in relation to the Growing Up Strong Program for secondary school students from the perspective of its users. The objectives of the research were to assess the level of satisfaction of student users with the Growing Up Strong Program; to explore the applicability of the learning generated by the program according to its participants; and to learn about their subjective experience of applying the character strengths promoted by the program. The study consisted of a cross-sectional descriptive survey of 590 secondary school students from seven different schools, using a validated data collection instrument. The respondents reported good levels of satisfaction with the Growing Up Strong Program and confirmed the applicability of the learning received in relation to self-regulation, social intelligence, gratitude, courage and open-mindedness in intrapersonal and interpersonal contexts. The results of the study confirm positive levels of user satisfaction, applicability and subjective experiences based on the lessons in positive psychology promoted by the program.