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Title: The Character Factor: Measures and Impact of Drive and Prudence
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Reeves, Richard V.
Venator, Joanna
Howard, Kimberly
The Character Factor: Measures and Impact of Drive and Prudence
Report, Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution, October 22, 2014
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Brookings Institution
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Age at Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Educational Attainment; Educational Outcomes; Gender Differences; High School Completion/Graduates; Motivation; Noncognitive Skills; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading)

There is growing interest among psychologists and economists in the importance of "non-cognitive" skills for doing well in life. In this paper we assess the quality of measures available in US survey data for two specific non-cognitive skills, drive and prudence, which we term "performance character strengths" -- non-cognitive skills that relate to outcomes important for economic mobility, such as educational attainment. We evaluate and rank the measures of drive and prudence found in these surveys, categorizing them as broad or narrow, and indirect or direct. Next, we use one of these measures (the BPI-hyperactivity scale in the NLSY) to look at socioeconomic gaps in performance character strengths, and the relative importance of performance character strengths for educational attainment. We find that family income and maternal education are positively associated with higher levels of performance character strengths, and that the influence of the measure on educational attainment is comparable to the influence of academic scores.
Bibliography Citation
Reeves, Richard V., Joanna Venator and Kimberly Howard. "The Character Factor: Measures and Impact of Drive and Prudence." Report, Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution, October 22, 2014.