Abstract

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) is a widely-used measure for character. Its factorial structure is still debated, however, and previous validation studies usually failed to examine the unidimensionality of the single character strengths. In addition, no studies to date have examined its Italian version. We validated the structure of the Italian short form of the VIA-IS in a sample of 16722 participants. Using confirmatory factor analysis and treating items as ordinal variables, we followed three simple, but too often neglected, steps: we studied the unidimensionality of the single strengths first, then their convergence into second-order virtues, and then fitted a hierarchical model that includes items, strengths and virtues, as originally proposed by Peterson and Seligman. All strengths except “love of learning” were unidimensional, and both the virtues and the final hierarchical models showed acceptable fit indices, unlike three models derived from an exploratory factor analysis. The same findings emerged for a smaller sample of 1035 participants. Finally, both character strengths and virtues showed positive relations with general mental health and negative relations with psychological distress. These results are discussed considering previous studies on the factorial structure of the VIA-IS.

摘要

优势价值行动清单 (VIA-IS) 是一种广泛使用的品格衡量标准。然而，它的阶乘结构仍然存在争议，以前的验证研究通常未能检查单个字符强度的一维性。此外，迄今为止还没有研究检查过它的意大利语版本。我们在 16722 名参与者的样本中验证了 VIA-IS 的意大利缩写形式的结构。使用验证性因素分析并将项目视为序数变量，我们遵循三个简单但经常被忽视的步骤：我们首先研究单一优势的一维性，然后将它们收敛到二阶美德，然后拟合一个层次模型，其中包括项目、优势和美德，正如彼得森和塞利格曼最初提出的那样。除了“热爱学习”之外，所有优势都是一维的，美德和最终的分层模型都显示出可接受的拟合指数，这与来自探索性因素分析的三个模型不同。对于 1035 名参与者的较小样本也出现了相同的发现。最后，性格优势和美德都与一般心理健康呈正相关，与心理痛苦呈负相关。考虑到以前对 VIA-IS 的阶乘结构的研究，讨论了这些结果。性格优势和美德都与一般心理健康呈正相关，与心理痛苦呈负相关。考虑到以前对 VIA-IS 的阶乘结构的研究，讨论了这些结果。性格优势和美德都与一般心理健康呈正相关，与心理痛苦呈负相关。考虑到以前对 VIA-IS 的阶乘结构的研究，讨论了这些结果。