Waters (2020) found that families who were engaged in positive interventions were significantly happier than families in a control group, emphasizing the importance of strengths-spotting practices in the family system. It is also known that strengths have a significant positive effect on academic achievement and predict engagement and perseverance of teen (Waters, Loton, & Jach, 2018). Waters & Higgins (2022) noticed that over the past decade, research showed that positive education interventions have a beneficial effect on mental health outcomes for students, such as improvements in life satisfaction and reduction of anxiety.
Even on children, strengths-based parenting was found to relate significantly to strengths-based coping and negatively to stress. It is suggested that strengths-based parenting encourages children to use more strengths-based coping when they face stress and adversity, which partially explains these beneficial outcomes (Waters, 2015). Strenghts use has also a lot of benefit (Shubert,Wray-Lake, Syvertsen, Metzger, 2018); There is a way
Regourd-Laizeau, Gay, Verger, Bressoud, & Shankland,(2018) showed positive consequences on children from 7 to 10 using a booklet improving strenghts identification and use. It seems very useful to help parents, children and teacher to go the same way toward strenghts use with a common perspective.
This presentation will deepen theoretical researches with qualitative datas on developing strenghts, from childhood, to adulthood with SEARCH topic presented in Waters, & Loton, (2021) using a book called “In the universe of character strenghts”. This tool can be used by children, by parents at home and teacher at school. 24 chapters develop the 24 character strenghts of VIA-IS with different points. Regourd-Laizeau & Laizeau (2022) showed results with higher rate of self esteem for all, better integration of strenghts topic as founded before by Niemiec, & McGrath, (2019). Qualitative datas on using it in the classroom by a teacher using strengths-spotting practices would be presented, presenting also tips and way of using it. First results are very interesting.