VIA Inventory of Strengths for Youth-Revised (VIA-Youth-1 and VIA-Youth-2)

This is the revised version of the VIA Youth, launched in July 2022. It contains revisions to all 24 scales. All scales have 4 items with the exception of teamwork (6), for a total of 98 items. There are two versions. The VIA-Youth-1 (VIA-Y-1) is for ages 8-12, the VIA-Youth-2 (VIA-Y-2) is for ages 13-17. The VIA Institute recommends this as the preferred measure of character strengths in youth.

The only difference between the two is the spirituality scale. This distinction by age reflects the neurobiological research on spirituality in children and the different ways children are able to understand and express spirituality at different periods in their developmental trajectory. In reviewing the scientific literature, the items on these scales represent the FIRST time an assessment of spirituality has ever been created that meets the following three criteria: a) it is for young children and adolescents; b) is a secular measure of spirituality (no mention of religion or faith); and c.) it does not substantially overlap with other character strengths (i.e., especially strengths such as love, humility, forgiveness, kindness, and gratitude, all of which can be identified by many as obvious secular-spiritual strengths). The development of these scales represents a collaboration between Columbia University (the Spirituality Mind Body Institute) and the VIA Institute on Character. The name spirituality has been retained as the primary name for this scale based on the model of character strengths originally developed for adults. Because none of the items reference religious practices or beliefs, the scale can also be called the sense of meaning scale. This alternative is offered to avoid confusion with a religiosity scale in settings where such a scale would be prohibited. The collaborators on this project include Dr. Lisa Miller, Dr. Ryan Niemiec, Dr. Robert McGrath, Dr. Dan Tomasulo, Joshua Lipson, Tom Ford, Francesca Bates, and Dr. Neal Mayerson.

The first study of the VIA-Y-1&2 involved 286 youth from three nations. All but one scale met common criteria for unidimensionality. Correlations with parent and teacher ratings of the strengths varied in a manner that was predicted from theoretical work on the relationship between self-reports and informant reports. The second study is currently underway. Involving over 94,000 youth ages 8-17, this study was used to create the two final versions of the spirituality scale.

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