Jones, Nicky; Jones Bartoli, Alice and Omigie, Diana. 2023. Character Strengths Afforded by Arts Engagement During Adolescence: The Development and Validation of the Creative Artistic Activities Strengths Affordances Scale (CAASA scale). Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, ISSN 1931-3896 [Article] (Forthcoming)

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Abstract or Description

Research into the impact of arts engagement on young people, particularly with regard to their wellbeing, is seeing ever-growing interest. However, it has been argued that methodological limitations, particularly a shortage of reliable measurement tools, may be undermining progress in this research area. Character strengths are established in the literature as a collection of positive traits - displayed through thoughts, feelings, and behaviour - that are related to positive development and enhanced mental wellbeing outcomes. Motivated by the possibility that character strengths that are exercised during arts activities may, at least in-part, account for the positive wellbeing outcomes that have been associated with such activities, this paper outlines the development and evaluation of a novel self-report questionnaire. Specifically, following exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on data collected from two separate samples of young people, we present a final 15-item scale for measuring patterns of character strengths exercised during arts activities. Our scale, which comprises Self-belief, Social Competence and Curiosity and Exploration, as key groups of strengths exercised during arts engagement shows reliability, convergent validity, and evidence of relative independence from trait level measurements. Following our presentation of its development and validation, the current paper discusses key ways in which our scale can be beneficial in both research and practice: from helping to clarify the precise mechanisms by which arts engagement promotes adolescent development and wellbeing, to supporting arts educators and practitioners that have an interest in leveraging arts engagement in this way.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	“©American Psychological Association, [2023]. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal.”
Keywords:	Character Strengths, Arts engagement, Adolescence, Wellbeing, Development
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Psychology
Dates:	Date Event 4 March 2023 Accepted
Item ID:	33529
Date Deposited:	19 May 2023 11:41
Last Modified:	10 Jul 2024 17:57
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/33529

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