This dissertation contributes to the literature on resiliency and character strengths. College students (N = 223) were administered questionnaires to determine the hassles they experienced in the last month, as well as their levels of life satisfaction, resiliency, and the four character strengths of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Humility/Modesty, and Love. Reponses to the Ego Resiliency Scale were used to divide students into the following three groups: resilient, moderate-resilient, and low-resilient. Self-reported levels of life satisfaction, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Humility/Modesty, and Love were compared across the three groups to determine whether they were significantly related to resiliency. The results indicate that Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, and Humility/Modesty had a significant relationship with resiliency, but that Love did not. Resilient students' levels of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence as well as Gratitude were significantly higher than those of low-resilient students. However, resilient students' levels of Humility/Modesty were significantly lower than those of low-resilient students. Although Love was not significantly related to resiliency, the levels of Love for resilient students were relatively higher than those of low-resilient students. Life satisfaction also was significantly related to resiliency. Resilient students' levels of life satisfaction were significantly higher than those of low-resilient students. Gratitude and Love predicted students' levels of life satisfaction. Therefore, Gratitude seems to be the essential character strength related to both resiliency and life satisfaction among college students.

This study explores how resilience is gained in childhood. Therefore the question becomes does resilience occur from predisposed characteristics or does it occur from experiences, moments, and people the individual encounters during their childhood. This project presents the results of a qualitative study of 15 master degree student participants that gave responses based on their childhood experiences. One of the requirements for this study, was that each participant had to have suffered from being at risk of factors that could have decreased their resilience, called contextual risks. There were three themes that emerged from this study and they are strengths, realizations, and support systems. Within the strengths theme, there were several variables to gaining resilience: descriptions that were given to the participants growing up, coping skills, and self-control. These themes suggest that resilience is gained through a combination of predisposed characteristics, life changing moments, and influential people.

The concurrent criterion-related validity of the Family Profile (FAMPRO) was investigated using the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales II (FACES II), the Self-Report Family Inventory (SFI), and the Family Assessment Device (FAD) as criterion measures . Further analysis was conducted through a principal component factor analysis with a varimax rotation and correlations with a Family Satisfaction Scale. The Family Profile is an easy-to-administer, -score, and -interpret instrument designed for use in family life education. It is a 35-item instrument that measures seven areas of family functioning: Family Fun, Family Decisions, Family Pride, Family Values, Family Caring, Family Communication, and Family Confidence. The total scores of the Family Profile had strong correlations with the total scores of the three criterion instruments. Additionally, the individual constructs of the Family Profile showed moderate to strong relationships with the corresponding subscales found in the criterion instruments. Factor analysis of the FAMPRO with this sample indicated that the most important factor explaining the largest portion of the variance is the ability of family members to display positive regard to one another in an open and warm manner. The Family Satisfaction Scale created for this project was moderately to strongly correlated with all of the Family Profile's Subscales. The sample used for this study was taken from undergraduate Family and Human Development classes at Utah State University and had a total N of 194. This nonrandom sample was mostly young, single, and female. The religious preference for 80% of the sample was Mormon (LDS). While the sample limits generalization of the results, these preliminary results provide sufficient evidence to warrant further research using the Family Profile. Because the FAMPRO is easy to use and interpret, it holds promise as an effective tool for family life educators and clinicians alike.

The Lincoln Elementary School needs assessment surveyed students in the third through fifth grades and their parents in order to identify strengths and concerns in their school and community. It also investigated whether or not participants considered family counseling skills as a concern or a strength. The results showed that the concerns and strengths identified by participants fell into three categories: family, community, and school. Parents' primary concern was children watching TV, while children's primary concern was getting enough sleep. Group differences were identified by ethnicity, gender, and marital status. These differences included English/Spanish skills, children showing respect for authority, and Accelerated Reader Program. Family counseling services was not identified as a concern or strength. However, results indicate that schools are a promising arena for marriage and family therapists to offer their skills in providing needed services.

The impetus for this study came from my own history of being a single mother while completing my undergraduate degree and the struggles that entailed. The research uncovers both the barriers and facilitators experienced by single mothers in undergraduate programs in a Canadian context and utilizes a framework of access and equity in education. The co-participants belonged to diverse social and political identities in terms of age, race and ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, and countries of birth. All the women attended universities in Southern Ontario. Twenty-five women agreed to be interviewed in either a group or individual interview. Co-participants were encouraged to contribute to the design and analysis of the study wherever possible. Previous research based in the United States conceptualized single mother students as social assistance recipients and explored their difficulties within this context. This study suggests using a wider lens to include other experiences identified by co-participants and the literature review. The study locates barriers both within the university as well as in the larger society such as interpersonal violence, stress, financial insecurity, racism and other forms of discrimination. However, it also identifies supports and strengths single mothers encountered such as family, friends, children as motivation, professors, on-campus supports, and critical pedagogy, all of which were largely missing from previous research. Many women challenged the often pathologizing dominant discourse and instead described single motherhood as empowering, independent, and liberating as compared to being a part of a traditional nuclear family. Co-participants also identified feeling isolated, discussions around which engendered a social group outside of the research project. By creating awareness of the needs of diverse single mother students, this project aims to disrupt the still-prevalent notion of the “traditional student” and accompanying policies and practices in institutions of education and the wider community. While much has been documented in Canada about the need for access, equity, and inclusive schooling, single mothers in particular have not been a main focus and included among other intersections of identity. The findings from this study address this gap and contribute to the literature.

The impetus for this study came from my own history of being a single mother while completing my undergraduate degree and the struggles that entailed. The research uncovers both the barriers and facilitators experienced by single mothers in undergraduate programs in a Canadian context and utilizes a framework of access and equity in education. The co-participants belonged to diverse social and political identities in terms of age, race and ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, and countries of birth. All the women attended universities in Southern Ontario. Twenty-five women agreed to be interviewed in either a group or individual interview. Co-participants were encouraged to contribute to the design and analysis of the study wherever possible. Previous research based in the United States conceptualized single mother students as social assistance recipients and explored their difficulties within this context. This study suggests using a wider lens to include other experiences identified by co-participants and the literature review. The study locates barriers both within the university as well as in the larger society such as interpersonal violence, stress, financial insecurity, racism and other forms of discrimination. However, it also identifies supports and strengths single mothers encountered such as family, friends, children as motivation, professors, on-campus supports, and critical pedagogy, all of which were largely missing from previous research. Many women challenged the often pathologizing dominant discourse and instead described single motherhood as empowering, independent, and liberating as compared to being a part of a traditional nuclear family. Co-participants also identified feeling isolated, discussions around which engendered a social group outside of the research project. By creating awareness of the needs of diverse single mother students, this project aims to disrupt the still-prevalent notion of the “traditional student” and accompanying policies and practices in institutions of education and the wider community. While much has been documented in Canada about the need for access, equity, and inclusive schooling, single mothers in particular have not been a main focus and included among other intersections of identity. The findings from this study address this gap and contribute to the literature.

The literature has documented the disproportionate rate of HIV infection among women of color, mainly, African American women and Latinas. The current trend shows that the number of cases affecting these sub-populations will continue to increase. A gap exists in the literature in understanding the coping strategies of Mexican American women living with HIV. Using an ethnographic approach, this research answers the central question of how Mexican American women live with and make meaning of their HIV status. This researcher used a sample of 15 Mexican American women living with HIV who had participated in the Mujeres Unidas support group in San Antonio, Texas. The most common theme found was how the role of faith was central to their lives. It was clear that this belief served as their primary source of strength. The findings suggest the need for social workers to examine new paradigms, strategies, and interventions that focus on the broad social, economic, and community factors that put Mexican American women disproportionately at risk for HIV. These factors include poverty, income and wealth inequality, poor quality of life, racism, sexism, and low socioeconomic status, which are all major risk factors for ill health and health disparities. This research demands that social workers and other researchers examining coping skills address the issues of resiliency and strengths perspective in understanding the ways in which the life journey unfolds for Mexican American women living with HIV. Although, this study focused on Mexican American women, future research is needed to compare this group to other women living with HIV as there may be cultural differences that exist. Additional research is needed in studying the role that religion plays in the lives of Mexican American women living with HIV as many of the participants revealed that they left things up to “God’s will.” Among the unexpected findings, the theme of viewing their situation from the perspective of “Un dia a la vez” (One day at a time) suggests that the belief that the course of their lives is not necessarily under their control which could be related to fatalism (fatalism). / text

The aim of the research is to evaluate the intellectual maturity and strengths and difficulties of primary school children with hearing disorders in comparison with healthy children. The following procedures have been employed in the research: Naglieri Jack A. DAP: Draw a Person A Quantitative Scoring System. Goodman R. SDQ: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. 64 deaf and hard of hearing children from first-forth grade and 40 hearing children of the same age participated in the survey. Results show that intellectual maturity of deaf and hard of hearing children is the same as the hearing children (t = 1,837, p = 0,069), so it doesn’t confirm data that children with hearing disorders have lower intellectual maturity than healthy children. Results of this research confirm data that deaf and hard of hearing children have more conduct problems and peer problems in comparison with hearing children (t = -2,635, p= 0,01; t = -2,711, p = 0,008). Results doesn’t confirm data that children with hearing disorders have lower value of social behavior than healthy children (t = 0,621, p = 0,536).

The study of character strengths is a relatively new area of research within the realm of positive psychology. Character strengths likely develop during childhood and therefore studying young children's capacities for talking about their perceptions of character strengths is important. This thesis sought to use children's voices and conduct an exploratory qualitative study into children's capacity to talk about perceptions of their own and others character strengths. The purpose of the research was two-fold, first, to create a developmentally appropriate methodology for obtaining children's perceptions of character strengths, and second, if children had the capacity to talk about character strengths, to discover how they did so. Seventeen five-and-a-half to six-year-old children participated in individual interviews at their school. After a review of the methodological issues involved with obtaining children's voices in research, four developmentally appropriate strategies utilising a story, puppets, a photo and direct interviewing strategies were created. The four strategies were tested in a pilot study, revised, and then utilised in the main study. The strategies created were found to be developmentally appropriate, and assisted children to varying degrees to talk about their perceptions. At least one character strength was able to be inferred from all children's responses. Affiliation, kindness and self-regulation were the most identified character strengths. Results indicated the children were on the cusp of developing their sense of self and the ability to verbalise their positive internal attributes. Differences in the way children talked about character strengths are discussed in reference to child development and the social nature of character strengths.

This study firstly explored whether individuals can identify character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) depicted by characters in positive psychology movies. Furthermore, the study investigated whether their existing character strengths and well-being are augmented or developed through viewing these films. A mixed method design exploratory qualitative approach with a phenomenological design was followed where quantitative data were obtained with a two-group pre- and post-testing design with a retention test. Participants were assigned to an experimental (n=15, mean age= 28.67, SD age = 8.79) and control group (n=15, mean age = 25.67, SD age = 9.28). A self-developed strength questionnaire and five standardized scales, namely Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF) (Keyes, 2006); the General Psychological Well-being Scale (GPWS) (Khumalo, Temane, & Wissing, 2010); the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky, 2008); Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSE) (Chesney, Neilands, Chambers, Taylor, & Folkman, 2006) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) (Kroenke & Spitzer, 2002), were administered to measure psychological well-being. Qualitative data were obtained through focus groups and questionnaires that were completed after the viewing of each film. Qualitative results suggest that participants were able to identify 22 of the 24 character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) as depicted by characters in the movies. Furthermore, participants were able to relate to the characters and report how they use the depicted strengths in their own lives. ANCOVA‘s revealed a medium increase (Cohen‘s d- value = 0.47 - 0.74) in the strengths: open-mindedness, zest, kindness, leadership and modesty immediately after the intervention and a large increase (Cohen‘s d-value = 0.9) in humour immediately and a month after the intervention. A medium to large (Cohen‘s d = 0.45 - 0.87) decrease was found on the strengths perspective and forgiveness immediately after the intervention, and in authenticity, love; appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude and hope a month after the intervention. Social intelligence showed a decrease (Cohen‘s d-value = 0.46; 0.51) immediately and a month after the intervention. A medium increase (Cohen‘s d-value = 0.53 - 0.56) in general well-being and emotional well-being was found a month after intervention, while general coping efficacy and coping via support from friends and family showed this increase (Cohen‘s d-value = 0.53; 0.56) immediately after the intervention in the experimental group. A contradictory finding was, that social well-being showed a medium (Cohen‘s d-value = 0.72) decrease immediately after the intervention. Suggestions for further research include establishing preferable movies before intervention, the use of a standardized strength scale and another experimental group, with the absence of focus groups, so as to determine a more accurate effect of films / Thesis (MA (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.