This study focused on the relationship between VIA (Values in Action) character strengths and the general second language (L2) proficiency of Iranian upper-intermediate EFLlearners. The researchers aimed to investigate the reletionship between six VIA virtues (courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence) and learners' general L2 proficiency. The study involved 300 Iranian EFL learners enrolled in five language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. The participants' proficiency level was assessed using an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Language proficiency was evaluated through the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and a questionnaire was used to measure VIA characteristics. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation. The findings showed a significant positive relationship between various subcategories of VIA characteristics and general L2 proficiency. These subcategories included wisdom, creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, courage, perseverance, honesty, humanity, love, kindness, social intelligence, justice, fairness, leadership, temperance, forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation, transcendence, appreciation, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality, and L2 proficiency. These results have implications for educational practitioners, such as school counselors, instructors, educational policymakers, and researchers, as they highlight the importance of VIA character strengths in promoting language learning achievement.

Aim: Character strengths are one of the important issues in positive youth development. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the special character strengths of Iranian adolescents. Method: The statistical population of the study consisted of child and adolescent’ s specialists and adolescents of Tehran city who were entered this study non-randomly and voluntarily. The specialist group (including psychologists, counselors, and teachers) was ten people. Adolescents consisted of two groups of nine-grade students (seven girls, six boys, M age: 14/5 years old). Data were analyzed using the content analysis method (concept-driven). Results: Specialists uttered positive traits such as “ learning fast” , “ loyalty” , and “ keeping secrets” as Iranian adolescents’ specific character strengths. In the adolescents' group “ purity” , “ qeirat/gheirat” , and “ chastity” were declared as special strengths of Iranian youths. Conclusion: Characteristics mentioned by specialists can’ t be considered as character strengths because they don’ t have the ten criteria of the character strength but characteristics mentioned by adolescents such as modesty/inhibition, zeal, and chastity have some of these criteria and the addition of these traits to the 24 character strengths could be offered. These findings were discussed in the context of Iranian culture.

Background: Recently, character strengths-based interventions have had very effective results on increasing wellbeing in numerous studies in different parts of the world. Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of character strengths training on reinforcing of character strengths and promoting students' mental well-being in emerging adulthood period. Method: This study was a semi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test design and a control group. Research population consisted of students of the University of Tehran during 2019-2020 academic year from among whom 34 MA students were selected using convenient sampling method and were assigned to experiment (15 individuals) and control (19 individuals) groups. Research tools used in the study included Mental Well-being Questionnaire (Andrews & Robinson, 1991) and Iranian Character Strengths Questionnaire (Hassaniraad, 2020). Before the interventions, pretest was conducted for the two groups. Then, the experiment group received Character Strengths Culture-Based Interventions (Hassaniraad, 2020) for 12 60-minutes sessions. After the interventions, post-test and one month later, follow-up was performed on both groups. The obtained data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The post-test results showed that in the experiment group, the scores of life satisfaction, negative emotion, and character strengths (including wisdom, courage, humanity, and transcendence) all were at a higher level compared to the control group (P< 0/01). Observed changes in the experiment group were also somewhat stable at the follow-up stage. Conclusions: Based on the results, it can be concluded that the package developed has an effective role in reinforcing character strengths and promoting students' mental well-being.

Introduction: strengths are positive traits in feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that contribute to good character. Character strengths play a major role in enhancing responsibility in adolescents. Method: The purpose of this study was to determine the character strengths predictive of responsibility in adolescents. The research method was correlation and the statistical population included ninth grade adolescent students. Statistical sample consisting of 417 students (213 girls and 204 boys) were selected by cluster sampling. Students responded to the Values in Action Inventory of Strength Scale of Park and Peterson and Nemati's Responsibility questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multiple regression method. Results: The results showed that the strengths of perseverance, honesty, kindness, leadership, prudence, self-regulation, gratitude and humor in girls and boys predict responsibility. In addition, curiosity, perspective, zest, love, and appreciation of beauty and excellence in boys also presuppose responsibility (P≤,0/001). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study it can be stated that some strengths predict responsibility in adolescents which can be considered in strengths’,programs and interventions.

BACKGROUND: As a chronic psychological and social disorder, addiction has caused concern in many societies. Many researches are needed to explain the factors affecting addiction to provide better knowledge and offer treatment strategies for its prevention. Character strengths, as one of the new theories related to positive psychology, can play a vital role in explaining addiction,therefore, the present study is aimed to investigate addiction prevention based on the character strengths. METHODS: This narrative review study used the keywords of “, character strengths”, , “, addiction”, , “, drug use”, , “, drug abuse”, , and “, addiction tendency”, , which were used in Persian and English databases. RESULTS: Character strengths as positive human characteristics reduced the vulnerability of people to addiction by improving individual and interpersonal strengths in different areas of life. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study have important implications for rehabilitators and addiction counselors in addiction prevention and empowerment of recovered addicts,therefore, paying attention to character strengths in mental and social health programs based on different levels of prevention could be of a great effectiveness.