<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine how well a set of 12 character strengths (Leadership, Integrity, Open-Mindedness, Bravery, Teamwork, Persistence, Social Intelligence, Love of Learning, Fairness, Self-Regulation, Perspective and Creativity) will predict academic performance (AP) and military performance (MP), compared to high school grade point average (GPA) and general mental ability (GMA). The study sample comprised 123 army cadets of two cohorts from the three-year bachelor's degree programme at the Norwegian Military Academy (NMA). GPA predicted AP (<italic>r</italic> = 0.32, <italic>p</italic> ≤ 0.05), but not MP (<italic>r</italic> = 0.14, <italic>n.s.</italic>), while GMA correlated significantly with neither AP nor MP. All 12 character strengths correlated significantly with MP (<italic>r</italic>s ranging from 0.27 to 0.65), and all except for Fairness correlated significantly with AP (<italic>rs</italic> ranging from 0.18 to 0.58). An average score of the 12 character strengths showed incremental validity beyond GMA and GPA in predicting both AP and MP. Our results suggest that character strengths should be considered when selecting and training army cadets.</p>
</abstract>

The purpose of this study was to examine how well a set of 12 character strengths (Leadership, Integrity, Open-Mindedness, Bravery, Teamwork, Persistence, Social Intelligence, Love of Learning, Fairness, Self-Regulation, Perspective and Creativity) will predict academic performance (AP) and military performance (MP), compared to high school grade point average (GPA) and general mental ability (GMA). The study sample comprised 123 army cadets of two cohorts from the three-year bachelor's degree programme at the Norwegian Military Academy (NMA). GPA predicted AP (r = 0.32, p ≤ 0.05), but not MP (r = 0.14, n.s.), while GMA correlated significantly with neither AP nor MP. All 12 character strengths correlated significantly with MP (rs ranging from 0.27 to 0.65), and all except for Fairness correlated significantly with AP (rs ranging from 0.18 to 0.58). An average score of the 12 character strengths showed incremental validity beyond GMA and GPA in predicting both AP and MP. Our results suggest that character strengths should be considered when selecting and training army cadets.

Predicting army cadets’ performance: The role of character strengths, GPA and GMA

The Norwegian Defense University College, and University of South-Eastern Norway

Journal of Military Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The purpose of this study was to examine how well a set of 12 character strengths (Leadership, Integrity, Open-Mindedness, Bravery, Teamwork, Persistence,...

Predicting army cadets’ performance: The role of character strengths, GPA and GMA

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 16, 2021

Page range: 139 - 153

Received: Oct 21, 2019

Accepted: Apr 01, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2021-0016

Keywords
character strengths, performance, GPA, GMA, OBSCIF

© 2021 Henning Bang et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Predicting army cadets’ performance: The role of character strengths, GPA and GMA

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 16, 2021

Page range: 139 - 153

Received: Oct 21, 2019

Accepted: Apr 01, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2021-0016

Keywordscharacter strengths, performance, GPA, GMA, OBSCIF

© 2021 Henning Bang et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
character strengths, performance, GPA, GMA, OBSCIF