Character Strengths Predict Subjective Well-Being, Psychological Well-Being, and Psychopathological Symptoms, Over and Above Functional Social Support.

The increasing value of character strengths in the prediction of well-being and psychopathology, after the effects of functional social support and sociodemographic variables are accounted for, is examined. Participants were 1494 Spanish-speaking students between the ages of 18 and 68 (43.3% men and 56.7% women) who completed measures of character strengths, functional social support, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and symptoms of psychopathology. Functional social support had predictive value in explaining the variability of each component of well-being and psychopathology. Regarding character strengths, theological strengths had the greatest predictive power for life satisfaction (ß = 0.41), positive affect (ß = 0.49), affect balance (ß = 0.45), purpose in life (ß = 0.60), self-acceptance (ß = 0.50), environmental mastery (ß = 0.47), and positive relations with others (ß = 0.25). Emotional strengths made the strongest contribution to the variance explained (ß = 0.41) of autonomy, and intellectual strengths were the strongest predictive variable for personal growth (ß = 0.39). Strengths of restraint had the greatest predictive power for the global severity index of psychopathology (ß = -0.27). Functional social support and character strengths have strong links to mental health. Positive interventions to develop these variables could contribute to enhance well-being and prevent psychological distress.

Application of S-1 Bifactor Model to Evaluate the Structural Validity of TMMS-24.

(1) Background: Recent studies have shown that the internal structure of TMMS-24 can be conceptualized as a bifactor. However, these studies, based exclusively on the evaluation of the fit of the model, fail to show the existence of a general factor of strong emotional intelligence and have neglected the evaluation of the specific factors of attention, clarity and repair. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the degree of determination and reliability of the specific factors of TMMS-24 using a bifactor S-1 model. (2) Methods: We administered TMMS-24 to a sample of 384 students from middle and high schools (58.1% girls; mean age = 15.5; SD = 1.8). (3) Results: The specific TMMS-24 factors are better determined and present a higher internal consistency than the general factor. Furthermore, the bifactor S-1 model shows the existence of a hierarchical relationship between the attention factor and the clarity and repair factors. The S-1 bifactor model is the only one that was shown to be invariant as a function of the sex of the participants. (4) Conclusions: The S-1 bifactor model has proven to be a promising tool for capturing the structural complexity of TMMS-24. Its application indicates that it is not advisable to use the sum score of the items, since it would be contaminated by the attention factor. In addition, this score would not be invariant either, that is, comparisons by sex would be invalid.

Emotional Intelligence and the Different Manifestations of Bullying in Children.

The main objective of this research was to help clarify the relationship between ability emotional intelligence (AEI) and bullying in children. Bullying is a maladaptive behaviour that generates severe adverse consequences in the school environment and is a matter of growing concern in the educational community. To investigate the relationship between AEI and bullying, we administered two tests to a sample of 329 students (52.9% girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old (Mage = 9.3; SD = 1.2). AEI was assessed using a test based on the interpretation of cinema scenes (EMOCINE). EMOCINE was designed to measure two of the primary factors considered in Mayer and Salovey's ability model: emotional perception and emotional understanding. Furthermore, we administered a measure of bullying and school violence (AVE), which provides a global index of bullying, as well as a measure of its intensity, by considering eight scales or types of victimisation (harassment, intimidation, coercion, threats, social blocking, social exclusion, manipulation and aggression). The results show that age had a statistically significant effect on measures of bullying, while gender showed an interaction with victimisation types. A reduction in bullying behaviours was observed as the age of children increased, while gender-based analyses revealed different patterns in bullying behaviours. Regarding EI, it was observed that students with high AEI scores presented the lowest levels in both global bullying indexes and the victimisation types. Consequently, AEI seems to have important implications for bullying behaviours, and therefore, interventions aimed at the evaluation, training and development of AEI might offer the educational community the possibility of preventing or redirecting bullying situations.

Social Intelligence and Psychological Distress: Subjective and Psychological Well-Being as Mediators.

The strength named "social intelligence" in the Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues represents emotional, personal, and social intelligences, which are considered "hot intelligences". This work contributed to the study of the mechanisms of influence of social intelligence on mental health. A multiple mediation model was proposed to quantify the direct effect of social intelligence on psychopathological symptoms, as well as its indirect effect through its impact on components of subjective and psychological well-being. This study involved 1407 university students who completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWBS), and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Social intelligence was found to be significantly associated with life satisfaction (a = 0.33, p < 0.001), positive affect (a = 0.42, p < 0.001), and negative affect (a = -0.21, p < 0.001), transmitting significant indirect effects on psychopathological symptomatology through these components of subjective well-being. Likewise, social intelligence was positively and significantly related to psychological well-being (a-paths ranged from 0.31 to 0.43, p < 0.001), exerting significant and negative indirect effects on psychological distress through the dimension of positive relations with other people. These results could be useful in order to expand the explanatory models of the influence of social intelligence on mental health and to design interventions based on this strength for the promotion of well-being and the reduction in psychological distress.

The short form of the VIA Inventory of Strengths.

BACKGROUND: The VIA Institute on Character is offering the VIA-120 as the standard VIA Survey, replacing the original 240-item version. The present work involved the construction and the initial evaluation of the Spanish VIA-120 as a short version of the Spanish adaptation of the VIA-IS. METHOD: This short form was developed using data from 2,143 Spanish-speaking adults. The Spanish VIA-120 was developed by selecting the five items with the highest corrected item-total correlations from the 10 items per subscale of the Spanish VIA-IS. RESULTS: Results lent support to the reliability and validity of this short form to measure the 24 character strengths included in The Values in Action (VIA) classification. The internal consistency coefficients of the subscales of the Spanish version of the VIA-120 were substantially equivalent to the long version. The VIA-120 showed high convergence with the Spanish VIA-IS in terms of descriptive statistics and associations with life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Factor structure congruence coefficients also indicated very high convergence between the VIA-IS and the short form. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish VIA-120 proved to be a reliable, valid instrument for the assessment of character strengths.

Character strengths in Spain: Validation of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) in a Spanish sample

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005) is a self-report questionnaire that measures 24 widely valued strengths of character. In this paper we present the psychometric properties of the Spanish translation in a sample of 1,060 adults. We analyzed its associations with life satisfaction and positive and negative affect, and examined its factorial structure. Data on the prevalence and demographic correlates of the character strengths are described. The results indicated that the 24 subscales had satisfactory reliability (mean α = .81, mean corrected item-total correlations = .50). Correlations of the VIA-IS subscales with life satisfaction and affect replicated findings from earlier studies and supported the construct validity of the scale. Factor analysis justified the five-dimensions of the original instrument

El Cuestionario VIA de Fortalezas Personales (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park y Seligman, 2005) es un autoinforme que mide 24 fortalezas del carácter ampliamente valoradas. Este artículo presenta las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española del VIA-IS en una muestra de 1.060 adultos. Se analizan las relaciones con satisfacción vital y afecto positivo y negativo y se examina su estructura factorial. Se describen datos sobre prevalencia y correlatos demográficos de las fortalezas personales. Los resultados indicaron que las 24 subescalas pueden considerarse fiables (media α = .81, media de las correlaciones ítem-total corregidas = .50). Las correlaciones de las subescalas con la satisfacción vital y el afecto reflejaron resultados semejantes a los de estudios anteriores y apoyaron la validez de constructo de la escala. El análisis factorial confirmó las 5 dimensiones del instrumento original