VIA Youth Survey

General Information on the Measure
Purpose of the measure	The VIA Youth Survey was designed to measure strengths of character that contribute positively growth and development.
Main constructs measured	Intrapersonal competencies; Interpersonal competencies
Applicable grade levels	Children ages 10-17
Publication year for the most recent version	No information available in the references reviewed.
Year originally developed	2004
Related measures
Measure Administration
Respondent	Student
Method of administration	Digital
Number of items	96
Item format	Five-point Likert-type scale
Administration time	15 minutes
Available languages	The assessment is available in more than 20 languages, including English, French, and Spanish.
Fee for use	Free and publicly available
Credentials required for administration	None
Scoring
Overall score reporting	Numeric scores are not reported. Twenty-four specific character strengths are provided in rank order, based on responses. Strengths include: Appreciation of beauty & excellence Love Curiosity Gratitude Humor Creativity Perseverance Leadership Love of learning Zest Teamwork Hope Kindness Perspective Social Intelligence Fairness Prudence Forgiveness Honesty Self-Regulation Bravery Humility Judgment Spirituality Additional score information is available for purchase in the VIA Youth Decoder Report, as well are recommendations on interpretation and use.
Subscore reporting	No subscores are reported (in the free version).
Scoring procedures	Scoring is done by computer, and results are available immediately upon completion. Though not reported, subscale scores are formed by averaging the relevant items.
Interpretive information	No interpretive information is available in the free version.
Evidence of Technical Quality
Populations for which technical quality evidence has been collected	Evidence has been collected from several samples. Park and Peterson (2006) used two samples: The first sample was of 1,300 middle and high school students in seven states, with a paper and pencil form, and 736 online users (ages 10-17). The VIA institute has published additional technical studies collected from subsequent samples of youth surveys.
Reliability evidence	Studies of the 96-item short form have found that internal consistency was fair to strong for all 24 character strength subscales (average Cronbach's alpha = 0.87), min=0.69, max=0.95). Based on the original 198 item form, test-retest reliability within a six-month period was fair to strong for the subscales (mean test-retest correlation = 0.58, min=0.46, max=0.71) (Park & Peterson, 2006).
Validity evidence	Evidence based on content No information available in the references reviewed. Evidence based on response processes No information available in the references reviewed. Evidence based on internal structure This evidence was obtained through Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted on the 24 character strengths (not at the item level), and found support for four main types of character strength (Park and Peterson, 2006). Evidence based on relations with other variables The 24 character strengths were also rated by teachers, and correlations were positive (though not always statistically significant) (Park and Peterson, 2006). Other measures of social skills (using the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) and life satisfaction (using the Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1991) also showed positive (though not always significant) relationships. The mean correlation of the character strengths with life satisfaction was reported at 0.39.
Locating the Measure
Obtaining a copy of the measure	viacharacter.org
References
	Park, N., & Peterson, C. "Moral competence and character strengths among adolescents: The development and validation of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth," Journal of adolescence, 29 (6), 2006, pp. 891–909.
Notes
	This measure is also reviewed in the AWG Guide.

Measure summary updated October 29, 2018.