Background

Several studies in adults suggest that the association between character strengths and psychological well-being may be mediated by various health behaviors, such as exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, and BMI, but few studies have examined which health behaviors mediate the association in children.  

Aims

The purpose of this study was to examine whether health behaviors (exercise, diet, and sleep) mediate the relationship between character strengths (perseverance-honesty, courage-ideas, compassion-gratitude, and fairness-care) and well-being in primary school students.  

Method

We measured character strengths, health behaviors, and well-being of fourth- to sixth-grade participants (102 boys and 95 girls; 9-12 years old). In this study, we utilized the Values in Action Inventory of Character Strengths for Youth in Japan (VIA Youth in Japan) designed by Imura et al. (2016) to assess the character strengths of children. The four categories of character strengths are as follows: perseverance-honesty, courage-ideas, compassion-gratitude, and fairness-care. Health behaviors were measured with items each for exercise (e.g., I love to exercise), diet (e.g., I have a set mealtime every day), and sleep (e.g., I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day) on a 1-4 scale that ranges from strong disagreement to strong agreement. Psychological well-being was measured with the Emotional Well-being Scale (EWS) developed by Takahashi and Aoki (2010). 

Results

The results of investigating the relationships between the three types of character strength (courage-ideas, compassion-gratitude, fairness-care) and well-being demonstrated significant positive correlation, while perseverance-honesty did not demonstrate significant correlation.We then examined the mediating effects from health behaviors (exercise, diet, sleep). On tests for a significant indirect effect of exercise and sleep, the 95% CI did not include zero, suggesting that both are significant. 

Conclusion

The present study suggests that the association between character strength and well-being in primary school students may be mediated by health behaviors such as exercise and sleep.In this study, we discuss ways to promote healthy living in children.