THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER® AND
STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTA REVIEW OF RESEARCH
Michelle C. Louis, Ph.D.
Bethel University
FALL 2012

Author note: This document is a revised, expanded, and updated
version of the following paper:Louis, M. C. (2009). A summary and critique of existing
strengths-based educational research utilizing the CliftonStrengthsFinder. Omaha, NE: The Gallup Organization.

This document contains proprietary research, copyrighted materials, and literary propertyof Michelle C. Louis and Gallup, Inc. The Clifton StrengthsFinder theme descriptions
and assessment items are copyright © 2000, Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. This
document may not be reproduced without the written permission of Michelle C. Louis andGallup, Inc.
Gallup®, StrengthsQuest™, StrengthsFinder®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, and each of the 34
Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.

Strengths Rules
Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D.
Research Director, The Clifton Strengths InstituteSenior Scientist in Residence, Gallup“What would happen if we actually study what is right with people?” There is a short answer to this question posed
by Dr. Donald Clifton, a pioneer in the field of strengths psychology and creator of the Clifton StrengthsFinder. In
the last 50 years, Gallup has learned that people and organizations grow more when they focus on what they do bestrather than trying to fix their weaknesses.
Doing what you do best is not always easy. Based on Gallup’s research in North America, Europe, and Asia, only
about half of the people studied take a strengths approach to school, work, and life. So, it can be hard for a student
or employee to put the strengths approach into practice if every other person he or she meets believes that fixing
weaknesses is the primary path to success.
The change agents who adhere to the strengths approach have worked hard to create exercises, training modules, andclasses that encourage people to do what they do best. Some of these activities are brilliantly designed and executed.
Others are not. Most have not been evaluated for their effectiveness.
Which strengths development programs are effective and why? That is a question we have to answer if we are to
optimize the efforts of educators, managers, and leaders. This review of the literature conducted by Dr. Michelle
Louis of Bethel University is a summary of what we know about strengths development and a guide to what we needto do next.
Based on my review of this paper, I have constructed a set of “strengths rules” that I encourage everyone to follow
when they are designing new activities to help people do what they do best. These rules are empirically derived andbased on key findings of strengths researchers from around the world:•• Knowing your strengths is not enough. Completing the StrengthsFinder is just a starting point.
•• Strengths development is aimed at a personally salient goal. Strengths come to life as they help you to answer
life’s “now what” questions.
•• Development takes tremendous effort. You must apply your strengths in daily life.
•• Strengths grow in the context of relationships, teams, and organizations.
With these rules in mind, I believe we can design more effective strengths development programs. We will only
know for sure if we become more systematic in evaluating our efforts. Here are tips for determining what works:•• Specify the goals of the strengths development program.
•• Base the program on the strengths rules and execute the program as designed.
•• Administer validated measures before and after the program to track change.
•• If possible, compare strengths development with some other program to determine added value.
With a coordinated effort, strengths practitioners and researchers can determine which programs work and whyby 2020. With a more sophisticated understanding of strengths development, we will be able to accelerate our own
growth and that of our families and community members, students, and employees.

THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER® AND
STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTA REVIEW OF RESEARCH
Greitemeyer, 2003), as a strengths perspective can produce“the ability to flexibly apply as many different resources andskills as are necessary to solve a problem or work toward
a goal” (Aspinwall & Staudinger, 2003, p. 13) by helping
people consider the personal resources they can mobilize toachieve favorable ends.

INTRODUCTION
The integration of a strengths perspective into
increasingly diverse types of educational environments
and practices demands concomitant research that explores
the effectiveness of these efforts and informs future
practice. An overview of the development of the CliftonStrengthsFinder is presented, followed by a comprehensive
review of research that explores the nature and impact ofefforts to promote student strengths development within
secondary and postsecondary education. This review
concludes with a series of suggestions for future research on
strengths-based initiatives.

At the individual level, a strengths approach encompasses
the identification of positive personal and interpersonal
characteristics, along with their integration into one’s viewof self, resulting in behavioral changes (Clifton & Harter,
2003). A strengths-based approach also informs current
scholarship on organizational behavior by promoting thescientific community’s attentiveness to the positive dynamics
and productive practices that exist at the communal ororganizational level (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003).
Regardless of whether the strengths perspective is used togenerate understanding and inform practice at the macroor micro level, its central aim is to pinpoint and amplify
the promising characteristics of individuals, families, andcommunities (Saleebey, 2006). All applications of thestrengths approach are founded upon the assertion that“human strengths are not secondary, derivative, illusory,
epiphenomenal, parasitic upon the negative, or otherwise

THE STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE
A strengths perspective is characterized by “efforts tolabel what is right” within people and organizations(Buckingham, 2007, p. 6) and assumes that every individual
has personal qualities that can be mobilized toward
desirable outcomes in many areas of life (Anderson, 2000;
Saleebey, 2001). The strengths approach explores ways toempower individuals toward thriving rather than mere
survival (Liesveld & Miller, 2005) and assumes that
capitalizing on one’s areas of talent is likely to lead to greater
success than would be possible by making a comparable
investment of effort into overcoming personal weaknesses
or deficiencies (Clifton & Harter, 2003). This paradigm
therefore highlights the importance of intentionallychoosing to focus one’s attention and energy into cultivatingthat which will yield the most significant growth (Shushok& Hulme, 2006), which is accomplished not by ignoring
weaknesses, but by instead seeking to understand andmanage areas of deficiency while optimizing effort bybuilding on strengths (Clifton & Harter, 2003; Clifton &Nelson, 1992). Strengths-based ideology provides insight forthe design of intervention programs that prompt individuals
toward achieving positive goals and aims (Frey, Jonas, &suspect” (Peterson & Seligman, 2004, p. 4) but that the
study of strengths is legitimate in its own right as a way ofcultivating wellbeing.

VARIOUS CONCEPTUALIZATIONSOF HUMAN STRENGTH
One approach to understanding strengths views them as
talents that have been developed to produce consistent levelsof excellent performance in a particular activity (Clifton &Anderson, 2002), and the work of researchers at Gallup isfounded upon this particular definition of the terminology
associated with the study of human strengths. Although
researchers and practitioners adopting other understandings

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTof strengths have contributed in many valuable ways
to contemporary research and practice, this review isfocused on a description of the Gallup model of strengths
and the research and applications that are derived fromit specifically.

THE DEVELOPMENT AND INTENT OF
THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER®
Four decades ago, Gallup researchers began a projectfocused on an empirical discovery of the components ofhuman strength. Educational psychologist Don Clifton
championed this effort, beginning with a series of projects
inspired by the question, “What would happen if we
studied what is right with people?” (Lopez, Hodges, &Harter, 2005, p. 3). Clifton held the unwavering convictionthat human strength and excellence could be empiricallyinvestigated in a rigorous, widespread manner. He and hiscolleagues thereby developed semi-structured interview
protocols designed to pinpoint the persistent thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors associated with situational successin a variety of fields. Gallup subsequently conducted theseinterviews with more than two million individuals for the
purposes of employee selection and personal development(Asplund, Lopez, Hodges, & Harter, 2009).

Gallup defines talents as “naturally recurring patternsof thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively
applied” (Hodges & Clifton, 2004, p. 257), including
an individual’s patterns or tendencies when interactingwith others, processing information, or navigating anenvironment. Because these talents are viewed as trait-likeand naturally occurring, individuals often use them without
conscious awareness of their presence (Clifton, Anderson, &Schreiner, 2006; Drucker, 2000). Clusters of similar talents
are grouped into talent themes. An individual’s five mostdominant talent themes are referred to within this modelas Signature Themes (Clifton & Anderson, 2002). Signature
Themes can be developed through the addition of acquired
knowledge and skill to form a strength, which is defined as
the ability to produce “consistent, near-perfect performancein a given activity” (Clifton & Anderson, 2002, p. 8).
Strengths are therefore not listed comprehensively because
they are specific to a particular activity or context and canbe understood as specific, energizing activities one performs
with excellence (Buckingham, 2007).

Clifton and his colleagues systematically reviewed thedata generated by the interviews to reveal the anatomy ofmore than 400 types of talent, creating an initial pool ofmore than 5,000 items that were candidates for inclusion
in a comprehensive measure of positive human qualities(Asplund et al., 2009). This information was subjected
to extensive reliability and validity analyses; those itemswith the strongest psychometric properties were retained,
providing the foundation for the 1999 launch of theearliest version of an instrument called the StrengthsFinder.
This instrument’s first edition contained 180 item-pairs
designed to assess a respondent’s top areas of talent from a
set of 34 possible themes; this online instrument was thefirst to provide an omnibus assessment of human talent(Lopez, 2007). It was renamed the Clifton StrengthsFinder
following Clifton’s death in 2003 (Lopez et al., 2005),
and in 2006, researchers began a systematic review of its
psychometric properties. Analysts recommended changes
for psychometric improvements to theme reliabilities
and validities; these adjustments were related to how
existing items were scored as well as modifications that
required either adding or removing specific items (Asplund
et al., 2009).

Clifton and Nelson (1992) propose that there are four
indicators of the presence of strengths. Specifically, theseauthors note that individuals are intuitively drawn toactivities that will facilitate strengths utilization, andso they advocate for people to cultivate an awareness ofthese types of “yearnings” (p. 43). A second signal that astrength may be at use is when an individual derives greatsatisfaction and energy from investment in an activity,
experiencing a sense of engagement and timelessness called
flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Rapid learning is anothersign of a strength’s presence, and the fourth indicatorof a strength in action is that “glimpses of excellence”(Clifton & Anderson, 2002, p. 52) are demonstrated when
an individual attempts an activity that requires the useof a particular strength (Buckingham, 2007; Clifton &Anderson, 2002).

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

The revised iteration of the Clifton StrengthsFinder contains
177 items, which is a three-item reduction from the previous
version. The initial version of the instrument offeredrespondents a short description of their top five clustersof talent (Signature Themes), as well as suggestions forcapitalizing on each, whereas the feedback for the updated
version is more detailed and customized in that it is basedon both theme-level and item-level data to form a morenuanced description of the respondent’s unique pattern of
responses (Asplund et al., 2009). Currently available inmore than 20 languages, the instrument has been completed
by more than eight million people worldwide (Gallup, 2012)
and can be modified for individuals with disabilities toallow for greater accessibility. The Clifton StrengthsFinder is
not designed to measure psychological illness or wellness,but exists to serve as a tool for personal development (Lopezet al., 2005). A common misconception is that the CliftonStrengthsFinder highlights an individual’s strengths, but
the developers of this instrument actually assert that it isintended to instead identify areas of inherent talent thatcan be deliberately developed into personal strengths.
Related supporting materials pertinent for a variety ofsettings are also available, and these resources are designed
to offer strategies for developing Signature Theme talents
into strengths within the spheres of leadership, business,
education, and ministry (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001;
Clifton et al., 2006; Liesveld & Miller, 2005; Rath &Clifton, 2004; Rath & Conchie, 2009; Winseman, Clifton,& Liesveld, 2004). Of particular relevance to this review
is the existence of StrengthsQuest (Clifton, Anderson, &Schreiner, 2006), which is a text containing additional
information about the nature and application of CliftonStrengthsFinder results, tailored for students and educators.

prominence within recent years. A strengths-based
educational approach is a departure from many of the
deficit-based models that prevail in many contemporary
circles of practice (Anderson, Cave, & McDowell, 2001). It
represents a return to educational principles that emphasize
the positive aspects of student effort and elevate student
strengths (Lopez & Louis, 2009). A strengths-based
education has been defined as one that “involves a processof assessing, teaching, and designing experiential learning
activities to help students identify, develop, and apply theirstrengths and talents” (Anderson, 2004, p. 1). According
to Lopez and Louis (2009), this approach includes several
components: (a) measurement of strengths, achievement, anddeterminants of positive outcomes; (b) individualization,
which is a personalized educational approach that considers
students’ goals, needs, and interests; (c) networking withothers who can encourage strengths use and provide usefulfeedback; (d) deliberate application of strengths within andbeyond the classroom; and (e) intentional development ofstrengths. The objective of strengths-based education is
to aid students in applying their talents in the learning
process to enable them to reach previously unattained levelsof personal excellence (Anderson, 2004), thereby helping
students become confident, efficacious, life-long learners
whose lives are instilled with a sense of purpose (Anderson,2000). Engaging students in a strengths development
process can catalyze thriving and help students derive
maximum benefit from the college experience (Louis &Schreiner, 2012).
Some contemporary writers use the term talent development
to denote a concept that essentially embodies the strengths
approach to promoting student success in that it “arranges
resources and learning conditions to maximize student
potential” (Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 2005,
p. 77). Talent development practices are founded upon theconviction that all students are capable of learning if theeducational environment adequately supports this objectiveby adjusting institutional policies and pedagogical practices

STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT WITHINEDUCATIONAL SETTINGSThe underlying principles of the strengths approach havefound resonance in several fields, including social work

(Saleebey, 1997), organizational theory and behavior(Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), and education(Anderson, 2004; Mather, 2010). Within the domain ofeducation, strengths-based models have gained increased

to help students realize their potential. Following extensive
research on the elements of effective educational practice,
one source advocates strongly for talent development
to become a central tenet in postsecondary institutions’

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

operating philosophies because “student success starts withan institutional mission that espouses the importance oftalent development and then enacts this vision” (Kuh et al.,2005, p. 266). Institutions that embrace a comprehensive
strengths-based approach conduct research to understandsuccessful students on campus, create a campus culturethat facilitates students’ discovery of personal talents
and strengths, and aid students in the process of finding
practical avenues for the expression of their strengths(Shushok & Hulme, 2006).

STRENGTHS INTERVENTIONRESEARCH IN K-12 EDUCATION
Although there are no published studies that examine
the use of strengths-based educational approaches withstudents in primary school settings, several such studies
have been completed with high school student populations.
Each of these investigations was conducted with students
during their first year of high school, involved the use of the
Clifton StrengthsFinder and the associated StrengthsQuest
text (Clifton & Anderson, 2002) as a basis for the strengths
curriculum, and utilized self-report measures to assess thedependent variables under investigation. The following
section outlines the methodology and findings of each ofthese research endeavors and notes the contributions andlimitations of these studies.

RESEARCH ON STRENGTHS-BASEDEDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
Educational strategies that embody a strengths perspective
are now being used in K-12 education (Austin, 2005;
Gillum, 2005; Purnell School, 2007) as well as in colleges
and universities across the country (Shushok & Hulme,2006). At the postsecondary level, strengths-based
approaches have been introduced into first-year student
programs (Cave, 2003; Louis, 2011; Schreiner, 2004a;
Stebleton, Soria, & Albecker, 2012; Tomasiewicz, 2011),
subject-specific course curriculum (Cantwell, 2005;
Passarelli, Hall, & Anderson, 2010), athletics (Robles,2012), academic advising (Schreiner & Anderson, 2005;
Swanson, 2006), student orientation and leadershipdevelopment programs (Lehnert, 2009; Pritchard, 2009;
Tanious, 2012), and other campus-based efforts to promote
optimal functioning in college students (Louis & Schreiner,
2012; Schreiner, Hulme, Hetzel, & Lopez, 2007). The
following section offers an account of the findings ofexisting research studies designed to assess the impact of
the use of the Clifton StrengthsFinder and related strengthsbased interventions within the field of education. It also
describes emerging research that offers insight into therelationships that exist between the talent themes measured
by the Clifton StrengthsFinder and other variables of interest
within educational settings. The description of each research
investigation includes information about the research

Research conducted by Gillum (2005) sought to determine
whether teaching high school students who scored in thebottom quartile on measures of mathematics performanceindicators about their strengths might have a positive effecton these students’ subsequent quality of effort in theirmathematics courses and their intentional use of personal
strengths. Gillum used a mixed-methods strategy that
employed a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design witha control group, paired with a phenomenological approachto understand the experience of students who participatedin the study.
The participants in Gillum’s (2005) study (n = 103) wereenrolled in their first year of high school and had been
assigned to four separate math classes based on theirunderperformance on statewide standardized mathematics
tests. Gillum randomly designated each class to receive
different types of strengths treatments. The first class ofstudents (n = 31) was exposed to the Clifton StrengthsFinderand six 55-minute class sessions that provided instruction
on how to apply their strengths. The second class (n =25) completed the Clifton StrengthsFinder but received nosupplemental instruction. The third group (n = 21) was not
exposed to the Clifton StrengthsFinder, but the students
in this group were instead given descriptions of eachof the talent themes measured by this inventory. Thesestudents were asked to identify the five talent themes thatdesign, methodology, participant sample, instrumentation,and central findings. Comments related to the appropriate
interpretation of each study’s results and noteworthy
limitations are also provided.

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

they believed were most personally descriptive prior toreceiving six 55-minute class sessions about how to utilize
these talents. The fourth class (n = 26) served as a control
group and therefore was exposed to neither the CliftonStrengthsFinder nor the associated instruction. Prior to theinterventions, all of the student participants were asked tocomplete pretest inventories that assessed quality of effort,
knowledge of personal strengths, and use of strengths. The
teachers of each of the four mathematics classes were also
asked to complete Likert-type pretest questionnaires that
prompted them to assess each student’s quality of effort,
attendance, and homework completion. These measures
were repeated after the intervention phase of the study
was complete.

However, Gillum’s study does provide preliminary evidence
that effort increases in samples of underperforming highschool students when these students are offered guidance
related to how to utilize their strengths.
Austin (2005) conducted a controlled experimental study
within the context of ninth-grade health education courses
at a large suburban high school designed to assess theimpact of a strengths intervention on several dependent
variables. Specifically, the independent variable in this study
was the curriculum type (strengths-based vs. traditional
health education course curriculum), and the dependent
variables included academic expectancy, academic intrinsic
motivation, academic extrinsic motivation, academic
efficacy, and academic achievement. Those students(n = 255) randomly assigned to the experimental group
participated in a six-week strengths intervention thatutilized the StrengthsQuest Curriculum Guide and Learning
Activities (Anderson, 2003), while those in the control
group (n = 255) spent an equivalent amount of time learning
traditional health education curriculum. At the end of
the six-week period, students were asked to complete anassessment that the researcher developed and validated
for the purposes of his study (Indicators of Academic
Achievement Questionnaire, Austin, 2004). Following thissix-week time period and the completion of the assessment,
the two groups rotated to ensure that all students were
exposed to equivalent curriculum, regardless of treatment
condition. Austin reported that students initially exposedto the strengths curriculum demonstrated higher academic
intrinsic motivation and more positive academic risk-taking
behaviors at levels of statistical significance. There were no
significant differences between the two groups on academic
expectancy and efficacy, academic extrinsic motivation, orachievement scores in mathematics and English.

To complete the qualitative portion of the study, apurposeful sample of five students from the treatment groupthat received both the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment
and the supplemental strengths training was selected forparticipation in semi-structured interviews. These individualinterviews were conducted by the researcher immediately
following the completion of the strengths training andagain one month later to gain information about thestudents’ attitudes about their strengths and whether they
believed that their knowledge about their personal strengths
would prompt them to improve their effort.
Gillum reported that the most favorable results occurredin the groups that received specific instruction on how
to utilize their strengths, as students in these conditions
expressed an increased desire to apply their strengths within
and outside the classroom. They also increased the qualityof their effort in their mathematics classes (Gillum, 2005).
Several limitations are relevant for this particular study,
including possible interference from extraneous variables
due to lack of random assignment and imbalanced supportof the study by participating mathematics instructors. In
addition, the researcher only asked about the experienceof students in one of the treatment conditions. It may have

There are several noteworthy limitations to Austin’s (2005)
study. Although the random assignment of students tocondition should eliminate concerns about pre-intervention

added value to the study had he also inquired about theexperiences of students in the other three conditions as well.
The small sample sizes generated marginal results, and thegeneralizability of the findings of this research is limited.

differences between the groups, Austin was not able todemonstrate the lack of differential selection conclusively
because only posttest data were collected. In addition, theresearcher could not control for the diffusion of treatment;

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

it is plausible that students in the control condition received
information about the content of the experimental condition
from their classmates. Finally, Austin introduced an
extraneous variable by choosing specific teachers to conduct
the experimental class sessions who had “positive rapport
with students” (p. 39) and who were “selected due to theircaring nature and ability to facilitate discussions” (p. 39),
whereas the teachers leading the classes in the control
condition were “not necessarily selected for their personal
attributes” (p. 39), but were instead chosen based upon
their credentials to teach the content of the course. Teacher
style may have significantly influenced the outcome of thestudy, as the observed differences between groups could be
accounted for by this factor alone. In addition, because boththe treatment and control groups were ultimately exposed tostrengths training, Austin was limited in his ability to assess
differences between the groups longitudinally, which would
have provided insight into the durability of any observed
intervention effects.

class than were their counterparts in the control group.
Turner’s inability to randomly assign students to conditionsin this study represents a significant limitation of thisresearch. In addition, one possible confound to the findings
is that students in the control condition experienced adifferent kind of pedagogical approach than did thosein the experimental group (traditional instruction withindependent work versus small-group interaction).
Turner’s research closely mirrors a study performed byresearchers at Gallup several years prior (Harter, 1998, as
cited in Clifton & Harter, 2003). The Gallup study involved
students (n = 1,648) at an urban high school and utilized
a time series design over a four-year period to determine
whether students who had been given personal feedbackon their talents as identified by the Clifton StrengthsFinder
would demonstrate differences in GPA, tardiness, andabsenteeism when compared with a control group who had
not received information about their talents. In each year of
this study, a group of randomly selected teachers received
training from Gallup related to how to conduct a specifictalent identification interview process. Following training,these teachers then provided individual and large-groupfeedback to ninth-grade students in the experimental
condition (n = 807) about how to use their talents.
Students in the control condition (n = 841) did not receive
the individual consultation or the large group feedback.
Students’ grades, tardiness, and absenteeism were measured
at the end of the semester, and students in the treatmentgroup were found to have a significantly lower incidence oftardiness and absenteeism and higher GPAs than students
in the control group.

The final study that evaluated the effect of using astrengths-based approach with high school students
adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonequivalent
control group design and assessed first-year high school
students’ grade point averages, their frequency of beinglate to class, and their involvement in behaviors which
required disciplinary responses (Turner, 2004). Students inthe experimental condition (n = 76) completed the CliftonStrengthsFinder and participated in two semesters of weekly
45-minute class sessions focused on using the StrengthsQuest
Curriculum Guide and Learning Activities (Anderson, 2003)
and the StrengthsQuest text (Clifton & Anderson, 2002).
During these sessions, students participated in strengthsbased learning activities in small groups of three to fourindividuals. Students in the control condition received
training and instruction in computer word processing
during the same time period. Turner reported significant
differences in GPA between the treatment and the control
group, with students who had been exposed to the strengths

The control of extraneous variables such as teacher training
and interview treatment fidelity was not described in thisstudy, nor were the procedures used for students assigned
to the control condition (such as whether they received
any kind of individual consultation with their teachers on
another topic to match the treatment of students in theexperimental group). In addition, the study did not reporton whether there was any examination of the teachers
involved in the study to determine whether differences intheir teaching style, effectiveness, or rapport with students

curriculum attaining better grades than students in thecontrol condition. In addition, students in the experimentalgroup exhibited significantly fewer behaviors that required
disciplinary action and were also less likely to be late for

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

may have been responsible for observed group differences
as opposed to the strengths treatment itself. These factors
are significant concerns and inform the interpretation of
the results.

and related materials over the course of six one-hour classsessions. Prior to this intervention and after its completion,
students were asked to complete the Self-Reflection Survey(Clifton, 1997), and the data were subjected to a paired
samples t test to analyze pretest-posttest gains. The resultsof this analysis revealed significant increases in optimism,
personal strengths awareness, self-acceptance, goal
directedness, self-confidence, awareness of others’ strengths,
and realistic expectations (Anderson et al., 2003). However,this study is limited by the lack of a control group, as theobserved pretest-posttest differences may be attributed
to maturation effects within the students instead of thestrengths intervention itself. In addition, little is known
about the reliability and validity of the instrumentation used
for measuring the dependent variables.

STRENGTHS RESEARCH IN POSTSECONDARYEDUCATIONAL SETTINGS
In addition to the studies conducted with students enrolled
in their first year of high school, research on the impact
of strengths-based initiatives within higher education is
also accumulating. This review describes several types ofstudies, including intervention studies that have included
the Clifton StrengthsFinder as a component of a strengthsoriented initiative, using a variety of methodologies toassess the impact of the intervention on several variables
related to student success. Also included is work thatexamines the ways in which various properties of the CliftonStrengthsFinder are related to other outcomes, instruments,
or variables of interest in postsecondary samples.

The second study conducted by this team of researchers
used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest waiting list
control group design and assigned incoming students
enrolled in a required first-year seminar course to eithera treatment group (n = 588) who received a strengths
intervention that included the Clifton StrengthsFinder
and the use of the StrengthsQuest Curriculum Guide andLearning Activities (Anderson, 2003) or a control group(n = 261) that was not exposed to the strengths activities
until the last four weeks of the course, after the completionof the posttests (Anderson et al., 2004). The strengths
intervention consisted of four class sessions designed tohelp students identify and capitalize on their strengths,
small group meetings with a peer leader for strengths-based
discussions, and an individual strengths coaching session
with a trained faculty or staff member. These researchers
used the Self-Reflection Survey (Clifton, 1997) to measureacademic self-confidence, strengths awareness, ability to
see others according to their strengths, and perception of
personal ability to apply strengths to academic tasks andrelationships. They found that students in the strengths
treatment condition scored significantly higher on all ofthese variables than did students in the control groupResearch on Strengths Approaches
Within a First-Year Seminar Course
An extensive body of research indicates that students’ firstsemester on campus plays a significant role in creating atone and trajectory for the remainder of their undergraduate
experience (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). For this reason,
higher education policymakers, faculty, and administrators
devote substantial attention to creating programs andpractices that can facilitate a successful college transition.
Among the most prevalent is the first-year seminarcourse, which occupies a multitude of titles and forms
across campuses nationwide but generally aims to promoteacademic and social integration, encourage personal growth,and introduce incoming students to campus resources (Keup& Barefoot, 2005; Upcraft, Gardner, & Barefoot, 2005).
Anderson, Schreiner, and Shahbaz (2003, 2004) conducted
two of the earliest studies to examine the impact ofstrengths-based approaches within a first-year seminar.

(Anderson et al., 2004). These results should be interpretedwith a full consideration of the design of the study, as it isunclear whether students in the control group received theequivalent experience of meeting with a peer leader in a

Their research participants included students at a private
liberal arts university on the west coast. The 2003 study
used a one-group pretest-posttest design and exposed thestudent participants (n = 611) to the Clifton StrengthsFinder

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

small group or having individual sessions with a faculty or
staff member. It is possible that the mere presence of theseexperiences within the curriculum, and not the strengthsbased content specifically, contributed to the observed
results. The aforementioned concerns about instrumentation
issues apply to this study as well.

on academic motivation within the context of a first-year
seminar course. Cave’s study was conducted at a private
liberal arts college and involved 220 first-year students
who were randomly assigned to first-year seminar groups
consisting of approximately 12 to 15 students each. Six ofthese groups were non-randomly selected to be a part of thetreatment condition (n = 111) based on the availability offaculty volunteers to lead these experimental groups, andthe remaining six groups (n = 109) were designated as thecontrol group. Students in the control condition utilized
the college’s existing first-year seminar curriculum, whereas
those in the experimental condition were exposed to the
Clifton StrengthsFinder and related materials (Clifton &Anderson, 2002) during three 50-minute class sessions inlieu of some of the traditional first-year seminar curriculum.
The three class periods that utilized the strengths
curriculum were conducted as large group plenary sessions
instead of individual classroom sections. As this researcher
hypothesized that exposing students to information about
their strengths would increase their academic motivation,
the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS; Vallerand, Pelletier,Blais, Briere, Senecal, & Vallieres, 1992) was administeredat pre- and post-intervention intervals. However, after
controlling for gender, degree aspirations, and pretest
performance, Cave found no significant impact of theintervention on AMS scores.

Estévez’s (2005) qualitative research used aphenomenological approach to investigate the impact ofa strengths-based intervention on academic engagement
and perceived social capital of underprepared students
enrolled in a first-year seminar course at a small midwesterncollege. Students in this course completed the CliftonStrengthsFinder; the StrengthsQuest text (Clifton &Anderson, 2002) was utilized to supplement the existing
curriculum during four class sessions. Estévez conductedindividual interviews with study participants (n = 30) using
questions adapted from the Self-Reflection Survey (Clifton,
1997) and invited some of these students to participate in a
focus group to gain additional information. This researcher
reported several themes that emerged in the course of theinterviews that lend support to the possibility that strengths
approaches are associated with student success. Estévez
noted that “students who engaged courses on the premisesof their strengths more readily engaged the academic
demands of the course” (p. 72), and these students reported
elevated levels of academic motivation after learning about
their personal strengths, a better understanding of how toapply their strengths to meet academic challenges, and apositive impact on their ability to form social networks.
Although these results suggest a link between strengths
awareness and student success, they must be interpreted
tentatively because of the lack of a comparison group. In
addition, the procedures used to code the qualitative data
were not clearly specified, nor were measures taken to
reduce confirmation bias in the interpretation of the results.

The results of Cave’s (2003) research should be interpretedwith a full consideration of the limitations inherent to themethodology of this study. First among these is an issue of
insufficient validation of the instrumentation used in Cave’s
research, as the original version of the Academic Motivation
Scale, the Eschelle de Motivation en Education (EME;
Vallerand, Blais, Briere, & Pelletier, 1989), was originallypresented in French and was validated using a sample ofCanadian college students. A team of researchers seeking
to validate the AMS for use in the United States reported
concerns about the construct validity of this instrument(Cokley, Bernard, & Cunningham, 2001). As the AMS

An additional study that informs the current bodyof knowledge related to the effect of strengths-based

approaches with first-year college students is that of Cave(2003), who used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest
treatment design with a non-equivalent control group toassess the impact of a brief strengths-based intervention

was initially developed to measure Canadian high school
students’ motivation for attending college (Vallerand et al.,1992), Cave noted that this instrument was inadequate tocapture academic motivation as she operationally defined

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

it in her study. In addition, Cave’s research design did
not sufficiently control for some extraneous variables that
may have influenced the results of this study. Specifically,
faculty who volunteered to participate in the experimental
condition may have been qualitatively different onsome relevant dimensions than those who refused thisopportunity. In addition, the treatment condition was
administered in large group settings of more than 100
students, whereas the sessions for students assigned to thecontrol condition were conducted in groups consisting of
12 to 15 students. Finally, Cave’s study was limited because
institutional dynamics caused this researcher to modify
the original research design before the posttest data werecollected, which meant that students in the experimental
condition were not exposed to the segment of the strengths
curriculum that was designed to link strengths to academic
motivation, and the power of Cave’s intervention was
thereby reduced.

an approach representative of strengths programs conducted
at many postsecondary institutions.
Louis used an experimental pretest-posttest waiting list
control group design to compare the impact of these twostrengths-based curriculum types with each other andto a traditionally implemented curriculum in a first-year
seminar course, which served as the control condition.
The dependent variables in Louis’ research included
academic engagement, hope, perceived academic control,achievement goal orientation, and mindset (implicit selftheory). Participants included first-year students (n = 388)
at a private liberal arts institution, and assignment tocurriculum type was randomly determined. Faculty
assignment to condition was also randomized, and all
instructors were required to attend an eight-hour training
session that corresponded to their designated condition.
To control for experimenter bias, these trainings were ledby an independent presenter, and all faculty and student
participants were blind to their condition. Data for Louis’
study were collected through written pretests and posttests,
which consisted of instruments with demonstrated
reliability and validity in assessing the dependent
variables. These assessments were completed during class
two weeks before the commencement of the strengths
interventions and again one week after their conclusion,and participants in both strengths conditions completed
the Clifton StrengthsFinder preceding their engagementwith the strengths activities. Louis designed the curriculum
for the two strengths-based interventions and gave each
instructor a detailed manual outlining the exact activities
to be conducted in each of four 50-minute strengths-basedclass sessions, including all teaching materials such as lessonplans, lecture notes, slide presentations, and handouts. To
ensure that any group differences could be attributed tothe intervention content and not to pedagogical variations,activity types in the interventions were matched.

Louis (2008, 2011) conducted research to examine therelative impact of two separate strengths-based educational
approaches within first-year seminar courses on several
variables associated with student success. Her research was
based upon the observation that many strengths-based
approaches to education had largely focused on the processof helping students identify their talents and strengths
while lacking sufficient emphasis on intentionally assisting
students in the process of developing these unique strengths
to their full potential. Louis’ (2008) study contrasted
this predominant talent identification approach with analternate method for teaching students about their strengths
that had a more developmental focus. Louis called heralternative approach a strengths development intervention,
which emphasized the application and further nurturing ofidentified talents by investing time and energy to add theskills and knowledge needed for strengths to develop. This
strengths development intervention approach highlighted
students’ capacity to develop their talents throughintentional effort and prompted students to consider specific

A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance(MANCOVA) conducted to examine the effect of the twostrengths-based approaches on the dependent variables
indicated that the strengths development group had thehighest adjusted posttest mean scores across all of thesevariables. Univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs)

opportunities on campus that would allow them to fully
capitalize on their strengths in college. She comparedthis developmental approach with a talent identificationintervention, which focused on the identification andaffirmation of students’ existing talents as innate tendencies,

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

conducted on each dependent measure to determine thelocus of the statistically significant multivariate effect foundthat treatment condition significantly affected perceived
academic control but not academic engagement or hope.
Louis also noted that curriculum type affected students’
perceived academic control, which is a construct that refers
to students’ perceived influence over and responsibility for
their academic performance and is predictive of students’tendencies to work harder on academic tasks, obtain better
grades, and remain enrolled in their classes (Hall, Perry,
Ruthig, Hladkyj, & Chipperfield, 2006; Perry, Hladkyj,
Pekrun, & Pelletier, 2001). Specifically, Louis found thatstudents who had been exposed to either strengths approach
had significantly higher levels of perceived academic control
at the posttest than did students in the control group. Afterthe students in control group were exposed to the strengths
curriculum, their levels of perceived academic control
increased significantly, reversing what had previously beena marked decline in this variable. This study also found thatstrengths development approaches produce more favorable
student outcomes than do talent identification interventions
because of the differential impact of these two approaches
on mindset. Students with a growth mindset (who believethat personal attributes are malleable) persist longer inchallenging situations and report higher levels of self-esteem
across their college experience than do their peers with
fixed mindsets (who believe that personal attributes are notamenable to change) (Robins & Pals, 2002). Participants inLouis’ study who were exposed to the talent identification
curriculum reported a significant shift toward a fixed
mindset at the posttest whereas students in the control
and strengths development conditions did not experience asignificant change in mindset. Louis (2008) also examined
the impact of various strengths-based approaches onachievement goal orientation, a variable that is predictive ofstudents’ academic success (Covington, 2000). Performancegoals are aimed at demonstrating competence or avoiding
negative judgments from others, whereas learning goals

identification curriculum demonstrated a greater likelihoodof subsequently adopting a performance goal orientation,
whereas those who participated in a strengths development
intervention reported a greater tendency to pursue learning
goals. Achievement goal orientation remained unaltered forthe control group.
These findings indicate that although strengths-based
approaches can help first-year students maintain a senseof academic control, merely teaching students about
their talents without providing instruction related to
how to develop them may be unintentionally promoting
a fixed mindset and the cultivation of a performancegoal orientation, both of which are associated withless positive outcomes. This research suggests theimportance of including a developmental component instrengths-based initiatives.
A limitation of Louis’ (2008) investigation is that itwas conducted at a single private liberal arts institution.
Therefore, the research findings reported here cannot be
generalized to undergraduate students at other types of
institutions, as the literature reports that college outcomesare determined in part by institutional type (Pascarella &Terenzini, 2005). Furthermore, the student population
at the institution at which this research was performed is
not broadly representative of the American undergraduate
population, as it contains a less diverse student demographic
than that which is present at many other institutions acrossthe country. This limitation also applies to the faculty
participants in this study, who were primarily Caucasian.
This researcher was unable to track the various groups overa long time period to determine whether the impact of
the interventions was lasting because the design included
a waiting-list control group, which meant that eventually
all participants in the study were exposed to strengths
training. In addition, Louis’ study relied on self-reportmeasures, which may be vulnerable to various types ofbiases and inaccuracies because of respondent concerns

focus on increasing existing levels of ability or learning
new skills (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Elliott & Dweck,1988) and therefore tend to be more beneficial in academic
settings (Elliot, McGregor, & Gable, 1999). Louis’
findings revealed that the students who experienced a talent

about self-presentation.

Tomasiewicz (2011) used a quasi-experimental design
with a sequential mixed methods approach to explore
participants’ experiences in two separate formats of an

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

eight-week first-year experience course: one that included
a strengths-based advising approach and another that was
taught according to the institution’s existing curriculum. All
participants in this study had not yet identified an intended
academic major and were in their first year of study at alarge public university. Tomasiewicz’s reported aims for the
research were to focus on an exploration of how the versionof the course that included a strengths-based advising
component influenced participants’ self-reported ability
to identify and explore personal strengths as well as theirthoughts regarding possible academic majors and careers.
The researcher collected demographic information for allparticipants from an existing database, and participants
were invited to complete electronic pretests one week prior
to the beginning of the course and posttests one week
following the eight-week study period. The pretest consistedof 34 items, 10 of which were taken from the Strengths
Self-Efficacy Scale (Chaichanasakul, Tsai, Zhao, Flores, &Lopez, n.d.), and 24 of which were written by the researcher
to explore student attitudes regarding their university
experience. Posttests contained the same 34 items as well
as some additional items to probe the impact of the firstyear seminar experience, but the researcher indicated thatthe two groups in the study were given different versionsof the posttest because the strengths group was asked torespond to some additional items such as, “At this time,
have you made changes to your career or major plans as aresult of your strengths development?” (Tomasiewicz, 2011,
p. 73). To further explore the research questions, following
the posttest a purposive sample of 14 students participatedin semi-structured interviews with the researcher lasting
45-60 minutes each.

purchase the StrengthsQuest book (Clifton, Anderson, &Schreiner, 2006), (b) asked students to complete the CliftonStrengthsFinder, (c) assigned a reading of some type ofstrengths article or a portion of the StrengthsQuest book,and (d) included at least one lecture on the strengths-based
approach. When courses included all of these elements,
the researcher considered them to be strengths-based,
although it is likely that there was considerable variation in
the content, emphasis, and timing of these strengths-based
components. One example of the kind of variation present
within the strengths treatment is that the researcher offeredto present a strengths lecture to students in the strengthsbased courses at the preference of the course instructor,
and he reportedly did so for approximately half of students
in this condition. The information given to students in theremaining strengths group course sections was not specified.
Quantitative results for this study indicated that students
in the strengths-based group reported thinking about
their strengths less frequently than the comparison group
following the intervention, which is a counterintuitive
finding. However, the treatment group also reported
reflecting on weaknesses with lesser frequency following
the intervention than did the comparison group. Caucasianmales reported greater adoption of strengths-based ideology
than did members of other demographic groups, although
it is important to note that the researcher used frequency
distributions of student responses to single question items
as opposed to scales with demonstrated reliability andvalidity to make the aforementioned determinations. Future
quantitative research on the topic addressed in this study
may benefit from the use of instruments with establishedreliability and validity.

Tomasiewicz (2011) did not proactively designate astrengths group for this study, but determined after thecourse commencement which course instructors had
voluntarily used a strengths approach through an analysisof their course syllabi. The researcher examined the syllabi
for four features to determine whether he could classify

A comparison of the demographic variables in the students
in the strengths group versus those who did not receive
strengths exposure reveals some significant pre-existing
differences between the two. An example of a noteworthy
difference is that 28.4% of those in the strengths-based

group were classified as honors students whereas only 2.3%of those in the comparison group were in this category.
The researcher did not describe the use of any statisticalprocedures to account for these preexisting variations. In
addition, although he invited 1,135 students to participate

the course as being strengths-based and therefore part of
the treatment group. Specifically, course instructors inthose sections subsequently classified by Tomasiewicz asteaching strengths-based courses (a) required that students

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTin the study, only 137 students completed both the pretestand posttest, which corresponds to a 12% overall response
rate. This group of respondents may not adequately
represent the experiences of the group of students fromwhich they were drawn, and so the confound of a samplingbias should be considered. It is also notable that this final
group of respondents was composed of more than twice as
many students from the strengths condition than from thecomparison group. Also, instructors voluntarily participatedin leading strengths-based curriculum, which may haveinfluenced students’ experiences in some systematic way.

Aside from the issues previously noted, there are several
other factors to consider when evaluating Tomasiewicz’s(2011) study. Although the stated research questions wererelated to examining students’ experiences with strengthsbased advising as defined in the work of Schreiner andAnderson (2005), this author did not describe the inclusionof any strengths-based advising of this type in the strengths
condition. Limited exposure to strengths-oriented materials
within an academic course is a different endeavor than theprocess of strengths-based advising described by Schreinerand Anderson (2005), and therefore the central researchquestions in this study could not be addressed. Due to thepotential variation among the experiences of the strengths
group and the brevity of the exposure to the strengths
approach, the effects of a strengths-based educational
component may be more readily assessed through a moreconsistent and extensive strengths treatment.

Tomasiewicz (2011) described the use of purposive sampling
within a group of student volunteers to generate a pool ofstudents to invite to participate in the individual interviews,
but the specific criteria used to select the 14 participants
were not detailed in the study other than that these students
demonstrated the “highest probability of informing the
research questions” (p. 71). An examination of the interview
questions reveals that many of the questions inquired
about topics that were not relevant to the central researchquestions in this investigation, such as how the students
selected their university, which topics they could recall fromtheir first-year seminar course, and which academic majors
were being considered upon enrollment at the institution.

Most recently, Stebleton, Soria, and Albecker (2012)
examined the impact of integrating strengths-based
curriculum into a required first-year experience course
at a large public university. Specifically, these authorssought to understand whether multiple exposures tostrengths-oriented materials would subsequently affectstudents’ self-awareness, particularly in the area of personal
strengths. To do so, they asked students to participate inapproximately six hours of strengths-related activities.
These included completing the Clifton StrengthsFinder prior
to the beginning of classes, soliciting feedback from twoother people about their assessment results, having brief
conversations with classmates who possessed similar talent
themes, discussing the nature and benefits of each of the
34 themes within a large group, completing a worksheetthat required students to consider their academic tasks andwhich themes might be useful in completing each task,
considering potential majors and their links to personaltalents, and accessing the online StrengthsQuest resources
prior to discussing a strengths action plan with an adviser.
Each of these activities represented required components

The results of the qualitative portion of this study were
presented in the format of providing a description of eachparticipant and a verbatim sample of each participant’s
response to one or more of the questions asked during thesemi-structured interview. The researcher reported grouping
students’ responses into themes and then described thenature of several of these themes, but did not indicate a
specific qualitative research approach that informed his
procedures. It is therefore unclear what kind of protocol
was used to generate the themes reported by the researcher
and whether this strategy aligns with recommended
practices in coding qualitative data. Tomasiewicz (2011)
described a process of asking interviewees to review hisnotes immediately following the interviews, which could beconsidered as a form of member checking, but no additional
strategies for ensuring the trustworthiness issues ofcredibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmabilityof the data (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) were described.

of the first-year experience course in which the students
were enrolled.

All of the participants in the study conducted by Stebletonand colleagues (2012) were incoming first-year students

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

enrolled in a first-year experience course. The researchers
selected one section of the course (n = 58) to complete
30-item pretest and posttest surveys designed to assess“confidence about personal strengths” (p. 5) using a Likerttype response format, which required students to assess
their confidence in their personal ability to execute a variety
of behaviors. Sample items described by the researchers
include “How much confidence do you have in your ability
to identify your personal strengths?” and “How muchconfidence do you have in your ability to accurately assessyour abilities?” (Stebleton et al., 2012, p. 5). These authors
did not provide a citation for the assessment tool they usedor a comprehensive description of all of the questions it
entailed, opting to instead highlight five items for which
there were significant differences between the pretest andposttest measures. Based on the results of repeated measuresof analysis of variance, Stebleton and colleagues (2012)concluded that students reported an increase in personalawareness of strengths, heightened capacity to accurately
assess their own abilities, and a better sense of how to apply
their strengths to help them learn more effectively, to clarify
personal values within the context of an academic major or
career, and to better understand how their strengths might
help them develop realistic expectations for the future.

the generalizability of the findings. The researchers did not
specify their rationale for selecting the particular sample
group used in the study or for the format and timing of thesurvey administration.

Research Examining the Use ofStrengths Approaches Within SubjectSpecific Academic Courses
Although most of the research on the use of strengths
approaches within a college course has occurred within
the context of a first-year seminar course, there are also alimited number of studies that examine how a strengths
curriculum influences the learning experience in othertypes of postsecondary courses. This type of research will be
reviewed in the following section.
In a study comparing a strengths-based approach to a
traditional method of teaching an introductory collegelevel public speaking course, Cantwell (2005) sought todiscover whether these two teaching methodologies would
result in different levels of academic engagement andproficiency in desired course-specific learning outcomes.
To do so, Cantwell used a quasi-experimental, pretestposttest nonequivalent control group design and randomly
designated those students enrolled in one section of a public
speaking course (n = 29) as the treatment condition, whereas
students enrolled in another section of the same course(n = 26) served as the control group. In the experimental
condition, four class sessions were devoted to a strengthsbased intervention that involved exposing students to the
Clifton StrengthsFinder and the use of the StrengthsQuest
text (Clifton & Anderson, 2002). In addition, the instructorof this section employed a strengths-based approach tooffering feedback to student coursework, emphasizing
what students were doing well and encouraging them toconsider how to capitalize on their strengths in completingthe assignments associated with the course. The students inthe control group were not exposed to any of the strengths

This study has several limitations, some of which theauthors note in their article. Perhaps the most notable isthat the study lacked a control group, and so it is possiblethat the observed results may be due to maturation effects
or other extraneous factors, a possibility that is particularly
relevant for first-year student populations during their earlytransition to campus life. The research relied exclusively
on self-report measures, and so it is possible that students
were responding to the surveys in socially desirable ways
or in alignment with their assessment of the researchers’
expectations. Also, the instrument used in this study was
not described with adequate specificity, and no reliability or
validity information was made available to help the reader
assess the practical utility of this assessment in accuratelymaterials, but instead were taught according to a traditional
public speaking curriculum that had been used in previous
semesters. To assess academic engagement at pre- and postintervention stages, Cantwell used the Academic Engagement
Index (Schreiner, 2004b). Attainment of desired learningor consistently measuring the impact of the intervention.
Finally, the sample size was small (n = 58) and consisted
primarily of female, Caucasian students enrolled in one
course at a single institution; this factor significantly limits

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

outcomes was measured by objective in-class examination
scores as well as independent raters’ use of The Competent
Speaker Speech Evaluation Form (Morreale, Moore, Taylor,
Surges-Tatum, & Hulbert-Johnson, 1993) to assess public
speech delivery skills. Students’ previous knowledge ofcourse content, pre-existing public speaking skill level, andacademic engagement were measured during the first weekof the course as a pretest so that this information would
enable the researcher to use these variables as covariates inthe data analysis. As Cantwell taught both sections of the
public speaking course used in this study, this researcher
took extensive measures to control for extraneous variablesin the research design by videotaping the class sessions andasking a blind independent rater to assess the uniformityof her demonstrated classroom behaviors and attitudes
using an instrument drawn from a resource designed
to evaluate faculty work (Braskamp & Ory, 1994). This
analysis indicated that there were no notable differences in
Cantwell’s behaviors or attitudes across conditions.

These concerns indicate that additional research should
be conducted to confirm whether academic engagement
is bolstered by a strengths approach in other settings withlarger samples of students and with various faculty teaching
the strengths-based course content.
Within the context of an outdoor and adventure education
course, Passarelli, Hall, and Anderson (2010) sought tounderstand whether a strengths-based educational approach
might enhance desired educational outcomes such as
personal growth, interpersonal skill development, andenhancement of positive group dynamics. To do so, they
integrated a strengths perspective into the pre-departureand international travel experiences associated with a threeweek undergraduate ecotourism course for two consecutive
years. The course was preceded by three two-hour sessions
designed to introduce participants (n = 58, representing
the combined number of participants over two years) tothe strengths approach by asking students to complete theClifton StrengthsFinder and review their results (session one),
to read about the strengths approach (session two), and to
define personal Signature Themes independently before
discussing common themes in small groups (session three).
At the time of departure for the course, students were asked
to identify strategies for developing some of their Signature
Themes. On the first day of the course, students participatedin an activity that prompted them to learn about theirclassmates’ Signature Themes. In a written journal,
participants reflected on their progress in developing theirstrengths by employing the strategies they had previously
defined. At the course’s conclusion, students were required
to write a paper describing their effectiveness in developing
personal strengths and reflecting on the extent to which theawareness of their strengths had contributed to personal
growth. Passarelli and colleagues noted that in addition
to these formally required strengths-oriented activities,
informal dialogue on the topic of strengths occurred
spontaneously throughout the ecotourism experience. At theconclusion of the course, students completed two surveys

A MANCOVA revealed that students in the experimental
condition reported significantly higher levels of academic
engagement at the end of the semester than did theircounterparts in the control condition, and students exposedto the strengths materials also attained higher levels of
proficiency in course-relevant outcomes, as evidenced bysignificantly higher scores on objective examinations andindependent evaluations of their public speaking skill.
Although the findings of Cantwell’s (2005) research lend
initial support to the notion that there is a link between
the use of strengths-based interventions and subsequently
elevated levels of academic engagement, care should betaken to interpret these results appropriately, given thenature of the research. Cantwell made substantial efforts
to control for confounding variables in her work. However,one potential limitation to this study is that the instrumentused to measure academic engagement in this research
had received limited use at the time it was utilized in thisstudy, and there was no test-retest reliability information
available for this instrument at the time Cantwell’s study
was conducted. The other limitations of this research
include a small sample size and limited generalizability.

designed to assess their personal growth and the extent towhich they were aware of their personal strengths. The firstsurvey was an unnamed nine-item questionnaire, which
the authors used to assess the degree of personal growth

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

associated with the study abroad experience. The second
survey was the Assessment of Strengths Awareness Program
Survey (Anderson, 2003), a 45-item instrument that
contains Strengths Awareness and Strengths Application
subscales. The authors subsequently computed mean scoresfor personal growth, strengths awareness, and strengths
application based on students’ responses to the assessments;
they also subsequently calculated correlation coefficients
between these variables. Following these analyses, theresearchers conducted what they described as a “thematic
analysis” (p. 127) of the final papers that students wrote
for the course during year one (n = 30), seeking to locate
information about how the awareness and use of strengths
contributed to participants’ personal growth.

refers to the tendency for participants to adjust personal
responses to align with what they perceive will be viewed
favorably by others, which may have been a factor in shaping
students’ responses to the surveys assessing personal growth
administered at the conclusion of the course and the final
papers they wrote related to their reactions to the strengths
approach used in the course.
The thematic analysis procedure was not described in thearticle, and so it is unclear as to whether the authors usedproper qualitative methods to reach the conclusions they
have described. Specifically, no information is provided
regarding how the authors approached their review ofparticipants’ written reflections, whether there was any
systematic process they used to analyze the written data,or whether they attended to the important issues oftrustworthiness in their analysis. The authors noted thatthey phrased the assignment for the paper in a way that
may have “led the students to discuss the ways in which
the strengths component was beneficial rather than how
it was possibly detrimental” (p. 130), which indicatesthat the responses may not have captured the fullnessof participants’ experiences with the strengths program.
The participants were asked to submit their papers as acourse requirement and for a grade, which introduces thelikelihood that students were responding to the demand
characteristics inherent in the study and not based on theirauthentic personal reflections. Passarelli and colleagues
noted that three of the 30 students reflected that they did
not find the strengths component to be beneficial, but nofurther information or analysis of this group of students isprovided. Collectively, these concerns must all be consideredwhen forming an assessment of the extent to which theresults of this study can be viewed as descriptive of the
impact of a strengths-based approach within outdoor andadventure education.

Passarelli and colleagues concluded that personal growth
was significantly correlated with strengths awareness andstrengths application, although they did not provide aneffect size for this result. They also described three themesthat emerged from the review of students’ final papers
describing how strengths use influenced personal growth.
The themes they noted included mindful learning, enhanced
relationships, and overcoming physical challenges, and theauthors offered one or two examples of how each of these
themes was reflected in the papers by providing illustrative
quotations or anecdotes.
A contribution of this study is that it sought to examine theuse of a strengths-based approach in a novel educationalsetting. However, in addition to the small sample sizeused in this research, there are several methodologicalconcerns that limit the accuracy and reliability of thefindings reported by Passarelli and colleagues. The study
lacked a comparison group and was conducted using a
posttest only format, which prohibits an analysis of how the
exposure to a strengths-based approach affected relevant
outcomes. Neither of the survey instruments used in thisstudy has been shown to be reliable or valid, meaning thatthe researchers are not able to know with any degree ofStrengths Interventions With Postsecondary
Student Samples Occurring in Settings
Outside of the Classroom

certainty what these instruments assess or how accurately
they do so. Although a common practice in social science
research, the exclusive use of self-reports is potentiallyproblematic for several reasons; most relevant to thisstudy may be a social desirability bias. Social desirability

In addition to the studies describing the impact of strengths
approaches that were infused into students’ coursework,
there is also a body of research that has specifically targeted

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

postsecondary samples but has sought to understand theirstrengths-related experiences outside of the context of afirst-year seminar or other academic course. These studies
are described in the following section.

to the second treatment condition in which the CliftonStrengthsFinder was utilized met with members of theinstitution’s student affairs staff. It is therefore plausiblethat the difference in advisor type may have produced
the results observed by Swanson and not the content of
the advising sessions themselves. In this study, students
reported for their scheduled meetings with faculty advisors
at a significantly lower rate than did those students who
were randomly assigned to meet with student affairs
staff. This observation may indicate that there were nonequivalent student groups involved in the study despite
random assignment or that the faculty and student affairs
advisors employed different protocol for recruiting students
to the advising sessions. In addition, the faculty advisors
were not given specific directions regarding the preferredcontent of the advising sessions, whereas the student affairs
professionals conducted meetings that were more clearlyprescribed in terms of content. These differences between
treatment conditions may have influenced the results ofSwanson’s study and indicate that the findings should beinterpreted cautiously.

One such investigation is that of Swanson (2006), who
conducted an investigation with 156 first-year college
students at a liberal arts college to assess the impact of
three types of advising experiences on student retention,
integrating a process of exposing students to their CliftonStrengthsFinder results as a part of one of the treatment
conditions. In Swanson’s investigation, all participants
completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI;
Consulting Psychological Press, 2003) in alignment
with the current practice of the institution at which thestudy was conducted, and then students were randomly
assigned to one of three groups. The control group met
with a faculty member to determine a class schedule forthe spring semester, as was the traditionally implemented
advising method. The first treatment group was asked tomeet with a faculty advisor for two 30-minute sessions
to build a relationship and for the advisor to assist in thestudent’s social integration into the campus community.
The second treatment group was required to complete
the Clifton StrengthsFinder and to meet with a strengthstrained member of the institution’s student affairs staff fortwo 30-minute advising sessions in which the results of
the Clifton StrengthsFinder were interpreted and discussed
in relation to the student’s academic plans. Attrition data
were collected for the students involved in the study at
two intervals: at the conclusion of their first semester ofcollege and again following their spring registration for
the following academic year, which was understood as ameasure of the students’ intent to re-enroll at the same
institution in subsequent semesters. Swanson (2006) foundthat students who had been randomly assigned to thecondition in which the Clifton StrengthsFinder was utilized
in the advising process had significantly higher retention
rates than the other two groups.

Williamson (2002) assessed the impact of a strengths
intervention on first-year students’ intent to re-enroll at their
institution as well as on their GPA. To do so, Williamson
selected a convenience sample of 80 students enrolled infirst-year English courses at a private, liberal arts college
and randomly assigned them to treatment (n = 32, after
attrition) and control (n = 40) conditions. The treatmentin the experimental condition consisted of exposing
participants to their Clifton StrengthsFinder results, two
60-minute strengths training sessions conducted in large
groups, a brief individual consultation, and a small group
discussion facilitated by the researcher. The control group
did not receive information about using their strengths. At
the end of the semester, Williamson measured participants’intent to re-enroll for the following year, the number ofcredit hours they earned, and their first-semester GPA
and found that students in the experimental condition had
earned a significantly greater mean number of credit hours
than had the students in the control group and that students
who had been exposed to the strengths condition also
demonstrated significantly higher GPAs than did those in

A noteworthy potential confound to Swanson’s study isthat two groups of participants (those in the control groupand those assigned to the first treatment condition) met
with faculty members, whereas the students assigned

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

the control condition. There were no significant differences
found between the two groups with respect to their intent
to re-enroll, although Williamson noted that the retention
rate for the treatment group was 97%, compared with 87%
for the control group. The small sample size in this study
limits the generalizability of the findings, but this research
provides initial evidence to suggest that strengths-based
approaches may positively influence academic achievement
in first-year students. However, it is also important to notethat the participants in the experimental group received
unique treatment (such as an individual consultation), which
was not mirrored in the control group. Because the groups
were not treated in an equivalent manner, it is possible thatthe observed differences in the dependent variables canbe attributed to these variations in students’ experiences
as opposed to the strengths approach itself. Also, because
there was no pretest administered in this study, it cannot be
determined whether the groups were equivalent on relevant
variables prior to the intervention.

significantly greater increase in state hope than that of thefirst group. One limitation to this study is the lack of acontrol group.

Research on Strengths Withina Leadership Context
Brodersen (2008) conducted a study with a correlational
design to assess whether certain characteristics of peer
leaders who were functioning in a strengths counselor role
were predictive of their effectiveness in providing strengths
counseling for students enrolled in a first-year seminarcourse. Participants in Brodersen’s research included
first-year students at a private liberal arts institution in thewestern United States (n = 472) enrolled in a 10-week firstyear seminar course, and the upperclass peer leaders (n = 68)
who volunteered to assist in the course with strengthsbased counseling related to the Clifton StrengthsFinder
had attended training for this role. First-year students
in the study took the Clifton StrengthsFinder and were
subsequently exposed to four class sessions designed tohelp them understand their assessment results and consider
how to mobilize their identified talents to achieve academic
success. Brodersen indicated that students met with anassigned peer leader in small group and individual settings
throughout the semester as a requirement of the course,
but did not provide details on the nature or the frequencyof these meetings other than to note that this individual’s
purpose was to help the first-year students better understandtheir strengths. This researcher asked the peer leaders tocomplete self-report surveys at the conclusion of theirpre-course training session inquiring about their academic
and career self-efficacy, perception of the adequacy of their
preparation to serve as strengths counselors, and theirpersonal level of strengths awareness, as these were thepredictor variables in the study. The four criterion variables
included first-year students’ cumulative GPA at the end of
the academic year, self-reported strengths awareness andacademic self-confidence, and their subjective ratings of the

The final study reviewed in this section varies slightly fromthe others in that its participants are not first-year college
students exclusively. However, this research is categorized
in this portion of the review because it explores the impact
of various types of strengths approaches that are notintegrated into the curriculum for a particular academic
course. Hodges (2002, as cited in Clifton & Harter, 2003)
conducted a study involving 150 undergraduate businessstudents at a public university. Students participated in oneof three conditions to assess the impact of different degrees
of exposure to information about personal strengths on State
Hope Scale (Snyder, Sympson, Ybasco, Borders, Babyak,& Higgins, 1996) scores. Students in the first group were
given the Clifton StrengthsFinder and written feedback that
identified their Signature Themes of talent. A second groupof students was given the same intervention as those in thefirst group but was also allowed to access an online learning
program that allowed them to learn more about theirtalents. The third group of students was given all of theeffectiveness of their peer leader. Data collection occurred
via the use of pretest and posttest surveys, and hierarchicalmultiple regression analyses were conducted to determine
which predictor variables were associated with each of theoutcomes identified as important in the study.

previously noted information and also received a 30-minutepersonal telephone consultation with a trained strengths
consultant. Following a pre- and post-administration of
the State Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1996), the researchersdetermined that students in the third group reported a

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

Brodersen (2008) found that the effect size of each
regression analysis was small, indicating that only asmall portion of the variation in the first-year student
outcomes measured in this study could be explained by the
combination of predictor variables. In addition, the only
characteristic of peer leaders that was a significant positive
predictor of their effectiveness was their self-reported
comfort with their level of preparation to be strengths
counselors. Although this characteristic was not predictiveof first-year students’ academic confidence or cumulative
GPA after two semesters, it did positively predict changes
in first-year students’ strengths awareness. Contrary towhat this researcher hypothesized, peer leaders’ strengths
awareness was a negative predictor of changes in firstyear students’ strengths awareness, meaning that whenpeer leaders had higher levels of self-reported strengths
awareness, first-year students reported less change instrengths awareness between the pretest and posttest
measures of this variable.

report scales, and it indicates that the data in this study may
be biased by a social desirability effect.
Wisner (2008, 2011) conducted a correlational study to
examine the extent to which students’ awareness andpractice of personal strengths (described in this study as
strengths ownership), various qualities of psychological capital(including hope, resiliency, optimism, and self-efficacy),and several demographic factors were predictive of effective
leadership practices. The participants in Wisner’s study
included college students (n = 153) who had previously
completed the Clifton StrengthsFinder and who also occupied
leadership roles within student development programs at
five private, religiously affiliated institutions. In the context
of this study, effective leadership practices were defined as
the five competencies or behaviors outlined in Kouzes andPosner’s (2002) Leadership Challenge Model, which isbased upon transformational leadership theory. To measure
this criterion variable, the Student Leadership Practices
Inventory (SLPI; Kouzes & Posner, 2006) was completed byeach student (self-form) and by two peer followers and one
organizational advisor (observer-form) for each participant.
The SLPI measures five types of leadership practices:modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging
the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging theheart (Kouzes & Posner, 2002), and provides a scale scorefor each of these as well as a total score. The 24-item PsyCap
Questionnaire (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007) wasused to assess the predictor variables of hope, self-efficacy,
optimism, and resiliency, as each of these constructs ismeasured in a subscale of this instrument. Strengths
ownership was assessed by extracting seven items from theStrengths Impact Measure (Gallup, 2006) that were related
to awareness and use of strengths. Students also provided
demographic information including gender, academic major,
class level, academic performance, race and ethnicity, andfirst-generation student status.

The results of Brodersen’s (2008) research underscorethe importance of peer leaders’ comfort in conducting
strengths counseling if students are to grow in their own
understanding of personal strengths and would seem tosuggest that it is imperative to provide adequate training forstrengths counselors to encourage these outcomes, but thedesign of the study does not allow for this assertion. Thisconclusion cannot be made based upon the data because
Brodersen did not measure the impact of the peer leader
training sessions on peer leaders’ comfort with their levelof preparation to conduct strengths counseling, and so an
empirically based link cannot be made between strengths
training and peer leaders’ comfort in providing strengths
counseling. A limitation of the correlational design type
is that it does not permit conclusions related to causation,and the lack of a control group in this study means thatany observed change between the pretest and the posttest
measures given to the first-year students could be due tofactors other than the strengths-based course content.

Following hierarchical regression analysis, Wisner (2008)

concluded that strengths ownership did not significantly
predict total SLPI scores or any of the five effective
leadership practices she examined. Her study revealed that
the PsyCap quality of hope was the strongest predictorof overall leadership behaviors as reflected in total SLPI

Brodersen noted that there was a lack of variation in thestudents’ ratings of the effectiveness of their peer leaders
and also emphasized that peer leaders’ self-ratings of severalof the predictor variables were consistently high. This typeof data trend is commonly observed with the use of self-

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

scores. Self-efficacy was a significant predictor of scores on
the SLPI subscales of encourage the heart and inspire ashared vision, and optimism was a significant, although lesspowerful, predictor of the SLPI subscales of enable others
to act and encourage the heart. She also noted that gender
was the only demographic variable that was significantly
predictive of effective leadership practices, such that males
in her study had significantly lower SLPI scores, a finding
which deviates from reported SLPI norms that indicate
similar scores across gender.

the study but instead provided information that participantsin the treatment group used within the context of theintervention. Lehnert used a stratified random sampling
procedure to equalize the number of men and women in thetreatment and control groups, citing literature indicatingthat gender may affect leadership practices as rationale forthis approach. As previously indicated, exemplary leadership
practices were measured in this study using the Student
Leadership Practice Inventory (SLPI; Kouzes & Posner,2006), including the self-assessment format as well as theformat for observer ratings.

The correlational design of this study does not allow
conclusions regarding causality. Wisner’s findings werelimited by a lack of variability in the form of uniformly
high scores across her sample in the leadership effectivenessand strengths ownership scale scores, which limited thepredictive value of the strengths ownership variable. Finally,
although Wisner’s sample was drawn from several sources,
these were all private, faith-based, liberal arts institutions.
Therefore, a sample of including other institutional types
and a more diverse representation of leadership roles anddemographic characteristics is necessary to generalize theresults of this research beyond the institutions participatingin this study.

Participants in the strengths intervention group completed
six online strengths development modules that were createdin accordance with a strengths development programming
framework offered by Gallup (2008). Students in the control
group engaged in six standard leadership development
learning modules that were not related to strengths, butwere instead based on a workbook developed by Kouzes andPosner (2002). The time period for the intervention was six
weeks. Lehnert controlled for gender, years of leadershipexperience, and completed leadership courses when
conducting her analysis of whether leadership training typeinfluenced participants’ and observers’ reported posttest
values (in addition to self-observed averages) on each of
the leadership practices measured by the SLPI. Results
indicated that students who engaged in the strengths
intervention reported significantly greater gains on all
five dimensions of effective student leadership practices
measured by the SLPI than did those in the control group,
thus providing initial support for the effectiveness ofstrengths-based leadership development programming.

Another study that integrated both the CliftonStrengthsFinder and the Student Leadership Practices
Inventory (SLPI; Kouzes & Posner, 2006) was conductedby Lehnert (2009), whose methodology and findings
regarding the relationship between strengths and leadershipeffectiveness varied considerably from Wisner’s (2008).
Lehnert (2009) implemented a quasi-experimental study
with a randomized control group and a pretest-posttest
design to examine the extent to which strengths-basedleadership development would influence students’tendencies to exhibit effective leadership behaviors asreported by themselves and two observers, comparing
these results with those of a control group that received theuniversity’s traditional leadership training. Participants in

Lehnert (2009) took several steps to reduce the impact ofconfounding variables, which increased the credibility ofher findings. However, one possible confound to the resultsof the study becomes apparent when examining the training
modules associated with this research, as the modules
for the strength development sessions were slightly morethis research included students occupying formal leadership
positions (n = 120, but reduced to n = 95 after attrition) at
a Midwestern university who had completed the CliftonStrengthsFinder. The assessment results from the CliftonStrengthsFinder were not used as an independent variable inextensive than those for the traditional leadership training,
consisting of more reflection questions to which students
were prompted to respond. It is possible that the observed
differences between the conditions may have been a result oftime on task and not the intervention content itself. Lehnert

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

noted that one limitation of her research is that it did notassess the relative distribution of Clifton StrengthsFinder
themes within the treatment and control groups, andhypothesized that it was possible for the mere prevalenceof various themes within each group to exert an effect on
the dependent variable. Also, because members of thecontrol group were exposed to their Clifton StrengthsFinder
results prior to the pretest, the experience of having
personal strengths awareness may itself be considered anintervention. Future researchers may therefore consider
eliminating Clifton StrengthsFinder completion as aprecondition for participation in their research, instead
opting to administer this assessment as a part of theintervention and not offering it to those in the control
condition. Future research on the effectiveness of strengthsbased leadership programming may be conducted on othertypes of campuses and with various student samples toprovide a more complete understanding of how strengths
approaches affect student leadership development.

arts university in the western United States. Those assigned
to the treatment condition courses (n = 23) were exposed to
10 hours of a mindful strengths development curriculum
during class over a period of four weeks. Over the sametime period, students in the two control condition courses(n = 22) participated in 10 class hours that used a traditional
leadership curriculum.
In Tanious’ (2012) study, mindfulness was measured
via the Langer Mindfulness Scale (Langer, 2004), a 21item instrument that measures four domains of mindful
thinking: novelty seeking, engagement, novelty producing,and flexibility. The 10-item Engaged Learning Index(ELI; Schreiner & Louis, 2011) assesses participants’
psychological and behavioral engagement in the learning
process. Tanious also used a revised version of the Socially
Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS-R3, Dugan & Komives,
2010), an instrument that assesses the eight values definedin the social change model of leadership development(Higher Education Research Institute, 1996). Finally,
the Leadership Efficacy Scale (Dugan & Komives, 2010)
was used to measure the intermediate variable of efficacy
for leadership.

The social change model of leadership (SCM, Higher
Education Research Institute, 1996) has emerged as apredominant model for student leadership development
within higher education. This model was developedfor use with undergraduate populations and targets
interpersonal development, interpersonal competence,and civic engagement through a values-based approachthat emphasizes positive social change (Komives, Dugan,
Owen, Slack, Wagner, & Associates, 2011). Researchers
have recently begun to examine whether integrating astrengths approach to student leadership development basedon the social change model might facilitate these intended
educational outcomes.

Tanious administered pretests before the commencement of
the study and posttests at the conclusion of the four-weekintervention period and again at the end of the semester.
The second posttest was not included in the final analysis
because a significant number of students did not complete
this measure.
Faculty in the control condition taught students aboutprocesses of change relevant to leadership and did notinclude information about mindfulness or strengths. The
mindful strengths intervention was developed in accordancewith mindfulness theory, which notes that a mindfulapproach to life is a focus on the present moment that
prompts individuals to notice new stimuli (Langer, 1989).
It is characterized by openness to new information, an

To that end, a recent study by Tanious (2012) used a quasiexperimental, pretest-posttest, non-randomized control
group design to investigate the extent to which a mindfulstrengths development intervention would affect engaged
learning and socially responsible leadership values among

ongoing creation of new mental categories, and an increased
awareness of multiple perspectives (Langer, 1989). The
topics addressed in the four sessions included the mindof the leader, restoring curiosity and creativity throughmindfulness, developing mindfulness, and strengths

undergraduate students enrolled in elective leadershipcourses. Tanious also sought to examine whether leadershipefficacy was a mediating variable in the development ofsocially responsible leadership values. Participants wereenrolled in one of four leadership courses at a private liberal

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21

THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTand mindfulness. Each class session in this intervention
contained a lecture, associated activities or group work,and a brief homework assignment. In addition, participantsin the mindful strengths intervention completed theClifton StrengthsFinder between the first and second
intervention sessions.

Although the social change model of leadership emphasizes
the importance of values growth in individual, group, andsocietal domains, the researchers in another recent study
that used this model (Lane & Chapman, 2011) specificallyfocused on the individual values of the social change model,
which include consciousness of self, congruence, andcommitment (Higher Education Research Institute, 1996).
The model suggests that the development of these values
requires increased self-knowledge (Komives, Dugan, Owen,
Slack, Wagner, & Associates, 2011), and so a strengthsbased development approach was considered as a potentially
useful strategy for promoting this outcome. In theircorrelational study, Lane and Chapman (2011) considered
whether strengths self-efficacy (i.e., the degree to which
individuals believe that they can employ personal strengths
effectively) and hope were related to the individual valuesof the social change model. A secondary research question
was whether previously identified predictor variables ofstudent engagement, race, gender, and community service
were related to the individual values of the social change
model within their particular sample. To answer thesequestions, Lane and Chapman (2011) invited undergraduate
students enrolled in 10-week leadership seminars at a
private institution in the southwestern United States to
respond to a 130-item questionnaire comprised of several
scales. These included the Strengths Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES;
Zhao, Tsai, Chaichanasakul, Flores, & Lopez, 2010), theindividual values scales extracted from the second revisionof the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS-R2; Tyree,1998), the Adult Trait Hope Scale (Snyder, Harris, Anderson,
Holleran, Irving, Sigmon, Yoshinobu, Gibb, Langelle,& Harney, 1991), and a version of Gallup’s workplaceengagement questionnaire (Harter, Schmidt, Killham, &Agrawal, 2009) adapted for use in higher education andintended to assess student engagement in that setting. Eachof the participants (n = 155) had also previously completed
the Clifton StrengthsFinder.

The results of paired sample t-test indicated that thedifferences in pretest and posttest engaged learning scores
were not statistically significant for the control or thetreatment group, and an ANCOVA revealed that there
were no significant differences between the groups in levelsof engaged learning. Similar analyses were conducted to
explore the effects of the treatment condition on socially
responsible leadership values, and the results indicated noeffect for treatment condition. Collectively, these results
indicate that the mindful strengths intervention did not
produce a significantly different result than did the control
condition in engaged learning or socially responsible
leadership values. However, the results indicated thatleadership self-efficacy did function as a mediating variable
for the development of some of the socially responsible
leadership values examined in this study.
One possible confound in Tanious’s study is that themindful strengths interventions were conducted by one
faculty member whereas the two control conditions were
each led by different faculty. Another limitation is that the
instruments measuring mindfulness, socially responsible
leadership values, and engaged learning used in this study
all relied exclusively on self-reports, which can be associatedwith several potential concerns. Tanious also noted that
her sample size was small and consisted entirely of students
who had self-selected into an elective leadership course,which may have affected the nature of her findings as wellas their external validity. Finally, because the data indicatedthat there were no significant changes in mindfulness frompretest to posttest in the treatment group, the mindfulstrengths intervention did not increase mindfulness in

Lane and Chapman (2011) calculated correlations

a measurable way. Tanious attributes this finding to thedemographic and developmental characteristics of theparticular sample of students in her study and alternatively
to insufficient strength of the mindfulness component of thestrengths intervention.

between the individual values of the social change model(consciousness of self, congruence, and commitment)
and the variables of student engagement, hope, strengths
self-efficacy, gender, race, and average number of weekly
community service hours. Strengths self-efficacy, hope,

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENTand student engagement were positively related to the
combined individual values of the social change model,
whereas gender, race, and weekly community service hours
demonstrated weak correlations with the individual valuesof the social change model.

described as individuals without a formal leadership position
who had advocated for or initiated a strengths approachat their home institutions. The researcher conducted one
telephone interview with each participant and asked thesame 10 questions of each, which included topics such as
how each individual supported the use of strengths within
his or her organization, the extent to which the leader
identified strengths in colleagues, how the leader usedstrengths to create a shared vision, and other similar topics.
The total length of time reported for all 24 interviews was
28 hours total, and audio recordings of the interviews weretranscribed by a third party for further analysis. Xaver
described a process of grouping her data into similar themes
for summary in her final report of the findings, but did notprovide the kind of detailed written record of exactly how
she approached this endeavor that would allow a reader toindependently assess the accuracy of this process.

The correlational nature of this study does not permit
causal inferences to be made about the effectiveness of the
Clifton StrengthsFinder in promoting desired outcomes orthe impact of the use of a strengths-based approach within
student leadership development. The statistical analyses andfindings for this particular study are not presented as clearlyas they might be, which complicates the interpretation of
the findings. In addition, the sample for this study consistedof undergraduates who self-selected into optional cocurricular leadership seminars, and among those students,
only a subset responded to the surveys associated with thisresearch, indicating that selection bias may be a factor toconsider in this study. Finally, as Lane and Chapman (2011)
note, future researchers might consider using a measure of
student engagement that is more well-established in higher
education in terms of reliability and validity.

As opposed to generating a series of themes that represented
a meta-analysis of the responses to the overarchingresearch question, Xaver (2008) presented some of theideas she heard in response to each interview question.
Xaver’s findings were presented in several selected verbatim
quotations to each of the 10 questions she asked during
the interview as well as some of the responses generated
in response to the final open-ended question regardingwhether there were further ideas that each participant
wanted to discuss. She provided written predictions of
how participants might respond to several of the questions
before conducting the interviews, and many of the themes
she subsequently noted in her results align with thesepredictions. Because Xaver did not report taking steps toincrease the credibility or confirmability of her findings,
such as triangulation strategies or member-checking
techniques, it is possible that she may have unconsciously
favored information that aligned with her preconceived
hypotheses about the usefulness of a strengths approach(confirmation bias). Social desirability bias is also a
potential confound to this study, as several of the interview

Finally, one study sought to examine the interplay between
strengths and leadership with a different population inhigher education. Specifically, Xaver (2008) was interested
in how institutional (as opposed to student) leaders in higher
education use personal strengths and integrate the strengths
approach into their leadership roles. This researcher used
a qualitative case study approach with purposive sampling
to explore this issue through interviews with educational
leaders at several institutions across the United States. The
participants in her research (n = 24) were nominated by
Gallup as those who had been “working with strengths forseveral years and cite significant change at their institutions”(Xaver, p. 48). In this sense, Xaver’s sample consisted ofindividuals who were likely very supportive of the strengths
approach and practice and who were familiar with Gallup’s
approach to strengths-based education. Among this sample,
some (n = 6) were executive leaders such as presidents,
chancellors, and provosts; others (n = 6) were classified as
second-tier executives such as deans and vice presidents; athird group (n = 6) consisted of mid-level leaders such as
divisional and program chairs; and a final group (n = 6) werequestions implicitly communicated an expectation thatthe participants were regularly integrating a strengths
approach into their work, prompting them to describe
the ways they used strengths in various domains of
their professional lives. This approach is contrasted with

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

framing the interview questions in a way that refrained
from assuming foreknowledge of participants’ attitudes or
behaviors. In addition, if the individuals were aware thatthey were nominated by Gallup for participation in the
study, then they may have perceived Xaver to be an associate
or representative of Gallup. Whether or not this assumption
was accurate, it is a factor that may have influenced theparticipants’ responses.

was instead solicited via an email inquiry to participants
to determine whether they had any additional commentsor questions.
Janowski concluded that the participants reported that an
ability to capitalize on their strengths depended on threeelements: perceived social support, previous experiencesof success, and the reinforcement of the benefits of
their strengths. This study provides some description offactors that play a role in prompting students to mobilize
their strengths in various settings. However, because
the researcher interviewed only seven undergraduate
participants and one graduate student, it is possible that thissmall sample size was not sufficient to ensure the attainmentof informational redundancy recommended for qualitative
research of this type (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) or to makedeterminations of which findings are rare versus which are
more representative of the group being studied. In addition,
Janowski’s sample consisted entirely of Caucasian students
with one exception, and was largely comprised of individuals
who reported adherence to the Christian faith, a cumulative
GPA of 3.5 or greater, high levels of certain personality
traits (extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, asmeasured by the Five Factor Online Personality Inventory),
and who came from intact families. The sample was not
representative of the demographic diversity present in theundergraduate population across the country, and thisfactor limits the transferability of the reported results. Theinterview protocols used by Janowski in this study were
not specified in the research report, making it difficult toindependently assess the extent to which the findings result
from a thorough investigation of the strengths capitalization
process. Although basic descriptions of the data coding
process and the measures taken to promote trustworthinessof the findings are provided, these components of theresearch are not described in sufficient detail to addressquestions about these important elements inherent to thegrounded theory method.

Research Designed to Understand the Natureof the Strengths Development Process
Janowski (2006) sought to gain an understanding of theprocess by which students transition from identifying
their strengths with the Clifton StrengthsFinder tointentionally applying them, a process this researcher
termed capitalizing on personal strengths. Janowski asked the
directors of strengths-based programs at three universities
to nominate students (n = 8) who fit three specific criteria
for participation in the study; these criteria included
participation in strengths-based programming at theinstitution at which the student was enrolled, the ability torecall and identify personal Signature Themes of talent as
indicated by the Clifton StrengthsFinder, and identificationof one area in which personal strengths are actively
applied (social, academic, or occupational). The researcher
then conducted a one-on-one semi-structured telephoneinterview with each participant to solicit demographic
information, a description of the strengths-based programin which each student had participated, students’ Signature
Themes as identified by the Clifton StrengthsFinder, details
about how students had applied and capitalized on theirstrengths, and the benefits they perceived from doing so.
Following the interview, participants completed the Five
Factor Online Personality Inventory (Buchanon, Johnson, &Goldberg, 2005) to assess personality along five dimensions,
including extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
neuroticism, and openness to experience. Transcribedinterviews were reviewed by the researcher and an external
auditor to increase the trustworthiness of the findings.
Janowski noted that theoretical sampling, the process of
returning to participants following the conclusion of theinterview to clarify and probe more deeply about selected
topics, did not occur through follow-up interviews but

Robles’ (2009, 2012) qualitative study used aphenomenological approach to explore elite athletes’
reactions to their exposure to the Clifton StrengthsFinder
and to gain an understanding of these athletes’ perceptionsof how they personally utilize their Signature Themes of

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

talent. The purposeful sampling procedures used by thisresearcher to obtain participants for the study included
extreme case, criterion, and snowball sampling procedures,and resulted in a group of female athletes who resided insouthern California and who also had elite athlete status
in the sport of women’s fastpitch softball (n = 16). For the
purpose of the study, elite status was defined as identifying
an athlete eligible for competition at the national,
international, or Olympic level, or who is a professional
sportsperson. Although this research was not conductedin a postsecondary setting per se, the majority (n = 10) of
the participants in the study were categorized as current
collegiate players. The athletes in Robles’ study represented
a variety of player positions, ranging in age from 18 to46 years.

athletic excellence, associate their high performance with
one central theme of talent, intentionally mobilize theirstrengths to overcome various types of obstacles, and adopt
an optimistic stance. In addition, Robles noted that theathletes found unique ways to capitalize on their Signature
Themes to cultivate team/coach relationships, assume
various leadership roles, and set personal goals. Finally,
the elite athletes in Robles’ study perceived the strengths
approach as having a positive impact on women’s athletic
teams through providing a means for increasing teamcohesion, developing greater understanding of individuals,
and establishing respect among teammates and coaches.
As Robles’ (2009) research was phenomenological in nature,
its most significant limitation is the lack of transferabilityof its findings. The results of this research are descriptive of
the experience of the participants in this particular study
and are not applicable to other populations, such as athletes
in general, female athletes, elite athletes, or athletes in othersports. Additional research with other types of athletesshould be conducted to gain a more detailed understandingof the impact of the Clifton StrengthsFinder and thestrengths approach for the diverse groups of athletes. In
addition, it is possible that participants’ responses to Robles’
questions may have been influenced by their perceptions
that the researcher was hoping for a certain type of responseto the questions posed in the study.

Participants began by completing the Clifton StrengthsFinderand reviewing their Signature Theme descriptions as
identified by the inventory. Robles (2009) then asked
participants a series of 28 open-ended questions over thecourse of two individual interview sessions to gain anunderstanding of their perceptions regarding their CliftonStrengthsFinder results and the strengths approach, andto further explore each participant’s view of herself as anelite athlete. During the interview process, the researcher
guided participants through activities designed to increase
their understanding of their Signature Themes of talent, toestablish a ranking of the personal relevance of each theme,
and to articulate the meaning of these themes in their own
words. In addition to these exercises, Robles asked a seriesof questions that prompted each participant to articulate
whether her Signature Themes of talent have been relevantin her role as an athlete in the past and present, and to share
her thoughts on whether the strengths approach could be
useful in collegiate athletic settings or used to influence
athletic team dynamics. The researcher also sought theopinion of an expert reader in her study and triangulated
data from multiple sources to increase the trustworthinessof the research findings.

Pritchard (2009) conducted a qualitative study thatutilized a constructivist approach and a grounded theory
methodology to explore the personal experiences ofstudents following an encounter with a strengths-based
intervention. Pritchard’s research participants included
a sample of student mentors (n = 12) at a public research
university in the United Kingdom who attended two days
(approximately 10 total hours) of strengths-based training.
These students completed the Clifton StrengthsFinder,
received their results, and then attended educationalsessions over the course of two consecutive days designed tohelp them understand and apply their Signature Themes oftalent. In the days immediately following the intervention,
Pritchard conducted a semi-structured interview witheach participant, inquiring about students’ reactions totheir Signature Themes, the nature of their educational

Robles (2009) highlighted six predominant themes thatemerged from the analysis of the various data sources.
These include the observations that elite athletes tend touse achieving and/or relational strengths in their pursuit of

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

experiences, and the impact of the strengths intervention.
Following the initial interview, participants were asked toengage in online journaling over a period of approximately
four months, responding to three discussion prompts posted
by the researcher at approximately evenly dispersed intervals
throughout this time period. These online journaling
prompts were intended to elicit students’ ongoing written
reactions to the strengths intervention and to inquire about
the degree to which they were reflecting upon and using theinformation presented during the strengths intervention.
Sixteen weeks after the completion of the two-day strengths
training, the researcher conducted a second interview witheach participant to inquire about any remaining impact of
the initial intervention and to ask students to elaborate on
several themes that emerged from the online journals. Data
from the interviews, the online journals, and the researcher’s
field notes were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’s (1990)
model of engaging in open, axial, and selective coding
processes to develop an emerging theory.

was negligible or nonexistent. Pritchard noted thatseveral factors were associated with students retaining asignificant effect from a strengths intervention after fourmonths, including continued reframing of innate traits
from perceived weaknesses to strengths, effort to progressfrom talent identification to strengths development, andregular use of terminology associated with the CliftonStrengthsFinder in personal vocabulary. Finally, the factorsthat were negative mediators of the long-term intervention
effect include lack of ongoing curricular follow-up or
training beyond the initial intervention, and personal
factors such as distraction or lack of persistent interest in
sustained engagement with the results generated by the
Clifton StrengthsFinder.
Pritchard’s (2009) findings provide insight into the
dynamics of students’ reactions to a strengths-oriented
educational program and note several factors that may
contribute to either a sustained or a depreciating strengths
intervention effect. The researcher cautions that thestudent interviews focused on gaining information about
the personal impact of a strengths-based educational
intervention and did not explore the influence of extraneous
factors such as gender, race, and socio-economic statusin shaping the reported results. Pritchard’s study was
conducted with paid student mentors of middle-classstanding, and with the exception of one student, allparticipants in Pritchard’s study were Caucasian. This typeof selection bias could result in missing themes or concepts
in the data and therefore has limited transferability to otherpopulations. It is also notable that only a portion of theparticipants in Pritchard’s research engaged in the online
journaling portion of the study, creating the possibility thatthe written thoughts of this subgroup of participants were
not representative of the perceptions of the entire group
under investigation.

Participants in Pritchard’s (2009) study noted that they
perceived that exposure to the strengths-based training
produced immediate, short-term positive personal andrelational effects such as increased confidence and selfefficacy, learning epiphanies, and heightened appreciationfor others’ strengths. The intensity of these effects was
positively mediated by factors such as the participant’s
degree of resonance with the Signature Themes notedon his or her Clifton StrengthsFinder report, the level ofpsychological reframing from a negative association witha particular talent theme to a positive association, and the
projection of the use of personal strengths in the future.
Negative mediators of the initial intervention effect included
previous exposure to a deficit-based approach to educationand skepticism of the accuracy of a web-based instrument
in assessing individual uniqueness and talent. Nearly
all students in Pritchard’s study reported that the initial
impact of the intervention had diminished at the fourmonth interval, but the strength of this effect was varied,

Research on Correlates of CliftonStrengthsFinder® Themes Within
Postsecondary Samples

as some participants asserted that the strengths-based
training and perspective had been of sustained value andrelevance in their lives, whereas a portion of the participants
noted that the long-term impact of the strengths training

Another group of researchers has focused on understanding
more about the Clifton StrengthsFinder as an instrument as
opposed to assessing the impact of a program integrating

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

its use. Schenck (2009) explored the relationship between
Clifton StrengthsFinder talent themes to personality profileand vocational interests. Personality profiles were generatedusing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Consulting
Psychological Press, 2003), and vocational interests were
measured according to the Strong Interest Inventory (SII;
Consulting Psychological Press, 2005). This researchersought to understand the relationship between CliftonStrengthsFinder themes and both gender and academic
program. Participants in this study included students frommaster’s-level programs in either counseling and careerdevelopment (n = 65) or organizational performance andchange (n = 99), and were predominantly female (130 of
164 total). Schenck’s study was non-experimental, utilizing
archival data. When numerical values were provided by anassessment (such as for each of the general occupational
themes within the Strong Interest Inventory), these values
were used in the subsequent analyses; categorical data
were recoded into a numerical format in all other cases.
For example, the researcher assigned sequential numericalvalues for each of the 16 possible personality types indicatedby the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator strengths profiles for eachparticipant in the study, and the Clifton StrengthsFinder
themes were subsequently recoded from nominal data
to dichotomous numerical values to indicate either thepresence or absence of each talent theme from that
individual’s five most predominant themes. Dichotomous
variables for gender and academic program were created ina similar fashion. Descriptive analyses including frequency
and strength of occurrence were conducted to determine therelationship between talent themes to gender and academic
program, as well as talent themes to personality traits andtype. For vocational interests, analyses were conducted todetermine the mean and standard deviation of each general
occupational theme (as measured by the SII) for when a
CSF talent theme was present versus when a talent theme
was absent from the Signature Themes profile.

are related to the other variables in her sample are provided.
Schenck found that all of the individuals in her sample
who had the Clifton StrengthsFinder Signature Theme ofCommunication or Woo were extraverted, and all thosewith the Signature Themes of Analytical and Significancepreferred the sensing personality trait. Other similar
pairings existed between the theme of Analytical and thethinking personality trait, as well as with the Discipline andSignificance themes and the judging personality tendency.
In addition to these frequently occurring pairs, Schenck also
described a variety of CSF themes and personality traits
that never coincided in her sample. However, she noted thatin spite of these trends of co-occurrence (or lack thereof),she did not find similar patterns between the magnitude
or clarity of various personality traits as measured by
the MBTI and corresponding Signature Themes, which
Schenck described as providing evidence that “the natureof the attraction between certain personality traits andstrengths may be more complex than just occurrence or
clarity alone would indicate” (pp. 146-147). Regarding
relationships between the general occupational types
measured on the Strong Interest Inventory (Consulting
Psychological Press, 2005) and Clifton StrengthsFinderSignature Themes, Schenck noted that there were notdiscernible patterns of interaction, explaining that perhaps
this finding was indicative that talent themes can be applied
across vocational endeavors. Finally, Schenck reviewed
the frequency distributions for the most prevalent CliftonStrengthsFinder themes by gender and academic programand found that CSF themes were not equally distributedby gender and academic program. Schenck noted somedifferences between these categories as well as a few slight
trends in the data but was not able to describe a definitive
pattern that encapsulated the relationship between gender,
academic program, and CSF theme distribution.
Schenck’s (2009) study provides some initial information
regarding how Clifton StrengthsFinder results may
be related to variables such as vocational preference,

Schenck’s (2009) extensive findings on relationships

among academic program, vocational interests, gender, andpersonality type are not summarized here, as they are not
germane to the purposes of this particular review. However,her findings describing how Clifton StrengthsFinder themes

personality profile, gender, and academic discipline, but
the results should be interpreted cautiously and viewed
as a description of the researcher’s particular sample as
opposed to being applicable to other populations. Schenck’s

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

small sample (n = 164) drawn from a single institution
and only two graduate areas of academic study with astrongly disproportionate number of females limited theconclusiveness and generalizability of her findings. This
researcher’s initial exploration of her study sample revealed
personality trait preferences that deviated significantly fromthe established nationally representative sample, which
is likely to have influenced the results of the study as awhole. In addition, because the ipsative aspects of CliftonStrengthsFinder do not permit norm-referencing, Schenck
was somewhat impaired by the nature of the inventory
results available to her and the inability to assess themagnitude of strength for each of the talent themes for aparticular individual — as an absolute value or in reference
to others. The categorical nature of much of the data inthis study limited the type of statistical analyses that could
be performed as well as the richness and sophisticationof the findings. Furthermore, Schenck’s procedure ofcoding each participant’s Clifton StrengthsFinder themes
as a dichotomous variable does not align with Gallup’s
assertion that each of the 34 themes measured by the
Clifton StrengthsFinder exist in degrees within an individual
as opposed to being either strictly present or absent. The
practice of coding non-Signature Themes as “absent” is notreflective of the reality that these themes simply exist inlesser degrees or are not among the most dominant for thatparticular individual.

Although not entirely clear from the description offeredby Carson and colleagues (2011), it appears that the careerclusters from the KCS were used as a proxy for Holland
vocational types in this study, although no clear rationale isprovided for this choice. The initial portion of the research
generated a distribution frequency ranking of the 34
Clifton StrengthsFinder themes in the larger student sample(n = 1,747) and an exploratory factor analysis consisting of aprincipal components analysis followed by varimax rotation
was then performed, resulting in a set of 11 clusters that theauthors believe represent higher-order structures of talent
as measured by the Clifton StrengthsFinder. The researchersthen correlated these structures as well as the individual
Clifton StrengthsFinder themes with the KCS career clusters
from the smaller study sample (n = 117).
Results indicated that some relationships do exist between
Clifton StrengthsFinder themes and vocational personality
types as measured by the KCS, as each of the six careerclusters were related to at least one of the 11 CSF factors
generated in this study. However, the results of thisinvestigation are limited by some features of the research.
Specifically, the sample was drawn from a single institution
and consisted exclusively of students who were in one areaof academic study. The sample was predominantly female(79% in the larger sample for the first portion of the study
and 82% in the smaller sample subset), thereby limiting
generalizability. Although the use of the KCS in this study
may be a valid approach, Carson and colleagues did notpresent sufficient information regarding the reliability andvalidity of this instrument or provide clear explanation orevidence regarding how it maps onto Holland types.

Another study that may have relevance within thedomain of career counseling and advising is one in which
researchers sought to determine the relationships between
the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes and indicators ofHolland’s (1997) six vocational personality types (Carson,
Evans, Gitin, & Eads, 2011). This research was conductedwithin the context of a larger study of 1,747 undergraduate
students enrolled in introductory legal education courses atan online university, and among those, a subset of students(n = 117) formed the sample for this study after having
completed another inventory called the Kuder Career Search

Another recent publication describes the results of two
studies conducted in tandem (Sutton, Phillips, Lehnert,
Bartle, & Yokomizo, 2011) designed to better understandthe variability within Clifton StrengthsFinder results across
two samples of students and the correlation between CSF
themes and variables associated with learning and academic

success. Specifically, these researchers examined trends andvariability in collective Clifton StrengthsFinder results of two
distinct student samples assessed at the same institution
annually over a period of two consecutive years and alsosought to understand the relationship between Clifton(KCS, Zytowski, n.d.). The KCS contains six career cluster
subscales that provide a measure of vocational personality,
which the researchers indicate correspond to Holland types,
although the KCS subscales are given different names.

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

StrengthsFinder theme groups and academic self-efficacy,
GPA, and standardized test scores. In these studies, thefour-dimensional classification of the Clifton StrengthsFinder
themes described by Hayes (2001) was used to group the
34 themes into categories: striving, relating, thinking, andimpacting. These groupings were used as a way to cluster
themes into types for subsequent analysis, as described in
the following section.

Sutton and colleagues (2011) found that in both samples
the two most frequently occurring themes included Beliefand Adaptability, and that both samples also included
Developer as one of the five most prevalent themes. Upon
further analysis, the researchers noted that the top 10
themes were identical in both samples, although the rankorder of prevalence among these themes varied between thetwo groups. The authors concluded that these data provided“reasonable evidence that the [Clifton StrengthsFinder] was,on average, a stable measure of strengths themes” (p. 33) for
the students on their particular campus. Significant positive
correlations were noted between the thinking category of
Clifton StrengthsFinder themes and converted ACT scores;
significant negative correlations were found between theimpacting category and GPA in both studies. As expected,
academic self-efficacy provided significant additional
predictive value for GPA beyond that of converted ACTscores alone.

In the first of the two studies, Sutton and colleagues (2011)
retrieved archival data from a student database at theirhome institution and examined these data for correlations
between variables of interest in the study. Specifically, theresearchers extracted GPA, ACT and SAT scores (using
a procedure verified by previous research to convert SAT
scores into equivalent ACT scores in their sample), gender,
age, accumulated college credits, and students’ Signature
Themes from the Clifton StrengthsFinder. In addition, theycreated an index for each student (n = 512) that served as a
descriptor of that individual’s Signature Theme profile interms of how it was distributed among the four dimensionsof striving, thinking, relating, and impacting. This index
was created by assigning one point for each Signature
Theme that appeared in each category, meaning that eachindividual case had five total points distributed among
the four categories and no more than five points in any
single category. The researchers reported the frequency ofeach of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes among thesample and calculated correlations between each of the four
strengths theme dimensions, converted ACT scores, andGPA. Following the calculation of correlation coefficients,
a backwards multiple regression analysis was performed
to determine which of the variables that were significantly
correlated with GPA might be useful predictors. This
procedure was repeated in a second study (n = 344), which
varied only in that participants in this sample were membersof the subsequent class year who were asked to completea measure known as the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASE;
Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001) so that researchers could

This study was conducted at a single institution over a
relatively short time period with a more homogenous
racial and religious composition than is present at many
postsecondary institutions, which means that the results arecontextualized and therefore should not be considered as
descriptive of other samples. Although the researchers assertthat their study provides initial evidence for the stabilityof Signature Themes on their own campus from one year
to another, it is important to be aware that this conclusion
is based on two separate samples of data and does notindicate the extent to which themes are stable within aparticular individual over time (test-retest reliability). This
work by Sutton and colleagues is the first published study
to use the four-dimensional model (Hayes, 2001) of CliftonStrengthsFinder themes as predictors of other variables,
and additional work in this area can help to determine
the validity of this approach as well as that of the specificprocedure used within this study to create an index foreach participant.
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
As strengths-based approaches gain prominence ineducational settings, it is critical to build upon existingknowledge by conducting investigations aimed at addressing
the multitude of questions that have yet to be answered

assess whether academic self-efficacy made a significant
contribution to explaining academic performance beyond
that accounted for by general ability. The frequency anddistribution of Signature Themes among the samples in thetwo studies were then compared.

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

regarding strengths-based approaches in education.
Continued research is needed to develop an increasingly
refined and empirically informed approach to strengthsbased education. Several authors (e.g., Anderson, 2004;
Lopez & Louis, 2009) have highlighted some of the
distinctive principles inherent to the strengths approachwithin the educational context, and yet ongoing work isnecessary to delineate the most effective methods by whichthese principles can be actualized. Much of the existing
research focuses on the overall impact of strengths-based
interventions, but it is critical to also consider which aspectsof these approaches are most efficacious in producing
desired outcomes and the mechanisms by which they exert
their effect. Research findings of this type would inform
practitioners seeking to optimize the content and structureof strengths-based programs.

horizon for the examination of individuals who experiencestrengths programs could be useful in adding to the current
understanding of whether these initiatives influence student
success in an enduring way.
As Gallup continues to advocate for educational approaches
that challenge students to develop their strengths, it isnecessary to better articulate and understand what thisprocess entails and the various forms it might take. For
example, there are fruitful possibilities in research thatexamines how strengths differentially manifest in various
contexts and constellations (Biswas-Diener, Kashdan, &Minhas, 2011). It would also be helpful to understandthe most effective strategies by which educators might
encourage students’ transition from merely identifying
strengths to proactively developing them in moresophisticated ways that enhance the quality and not merely
the quantity of strengths use and application (Louis, 2011).

Several methodological considerations should inform future
research. Controlled intervention studies with experimental
or quasi-experimental designs utilizing instruments withdemonstrated reliability and validity could be particularly
helpful in empirically assessing the impact of strengths
initiatives. There is a need for more intervention studies
that are skillfully designed with a careful considerationof the outcomes or goals of the program informing thecreation of each component of the intervention. As thisreview highlights, this type of research may be able toaddress some of the unanswered questions that remainfrom existing work that is correlational in nature, lacks acontrol group for comparison, or has been conducted using
instruments that are not well-established. In addition toquantitative research efforts, studies that are qualitativein nature may generate valuable insights related to how
students respond to distinct aspects of strengths-oriented
activities as well as which specific thoughts or emotions are
elicited by the messages embedded within various strengths
approaches. Finally, little is known about the long-term
impact of exposure to strengths-based programs or how toextend the duration of the known positive effects. Time-

Pascarella (2006) asserts that the ever-expanding diversityof the American population compels educational researchers
to devote heightened attention to routinely examining
the conditional effects in addition to the general effects ofinterventions, as it is possible that the same intervention
may differ in the magnitude or direction of its impact
for students with different characteristics or traits. This
assertion means that further research should be conducted
to examine the impact of strengths-based approaches onmore diverse student populations enrolled in varying typesof secondary and postsecondary institutions. Much of theexisting research involves traditional-aged college students
and lacks racial and ethnic diversity.
In addition, future investigations should assess the ideal
timing of exposure to strengths-based interventions based
upon the desired outcomes of such programs. This type of
research should consider the ways in which the students’developmental levels during each phase of their educational
career may shape their response to strengths-based
approaches. Researchers could also consider designing andassessing strengths interventions tailored to strategicallyseries designs and other approaches that lengthen the time

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THE CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER ® AND STUDENT STRENGTHS DEVELOPMENT

target critical issues faced by students as they progress along
a developmental course.
Finally, it would also be useful to consider initiating
investigations that assess the impact of strengths
interventions beyond the individual student’s selfperceptions by examining whether students’ exposure tostrengths-oriented training produces any measurable impact
on their relationships, their ability to engage in perspectivetaking, their appreciation for diverse backgrounds andperspectives, and their contribution to community, among
other outcomes. Researchers could also consider conducting
studies to examine the more broad-based impact ofstrengths interventions at the campus or community level.

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