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The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes. Scouting’s mission is a long-term proposition, an investment in the future.
The goal of the study by Dr. Richard M. Lerner and his team at Tufts University was to better understand the character development of Scouts while it was happening, rather than relying on former Scouts to recount their memories, or only measuring current Scouts at one point in time.
Positive Character in Scouting
When conducting research, it’s important to account for factors like age, race, socioeconomic status, and other demographic characteristics, because we want to know any change present can be attributed to Scouting.
To begin with, there were no significant differences between Scouts and non-Scouts. Were Scouts already higher in character, it would have shown that Scouting merely attracts good kids. Instead, the Scouts and non-Scouts were similar enough “to compare apples to apples” moving forward.
Two and a half years into the study, the boys in Cub Scouts reported significant increases in cheerfulness, helpfulness, kindness, obedience, trustworthiness and hopeful future expectations. There were no significant increases reported among non-Scouts.
Further, when asked what was most important to them, Scouts were significantly more likely than non-Scouts to choose helping others or doing the right thing as compared to being smart, being the best, or playing sports. This showed that boys in Scouts are more likely to embrace prosocial values than non-Scouts. Youth who participated in both sports and Scouting were also more likely to choose these same prosocial values than those who only played sports.
More Time in Scouting, Better Character Development
A 2012 independent research study of Scouts conducted by Baylor University found that Eagle Scouts are more likely to volunteer, donate money to charity, vote, and work with others to improve their neighborhood than men who have never been in Scouting. They were also found to be more goal-oriented, have higher levels of planning and preparation skills, and be more likely to take a leadership position at work or in their local communities.
Most of us would not be surprised to associate those types of behaviors with Eagle Scouts. But what about Scouting in general? Research has shown that more time spent in Scouting results in better character development. In fact, the Tufts study showed:
- Scouts who attend meetings regularly reported higher trustworthiness, helpfulness, kindness, and thriftiness, higher levels of hopeful future expectation and goal-setting, better grades, and a greater connection to nature as compared to Scouts who sometimes or rarely attend.
- As Scouts’ time in the program increases, they report higher levels of trustworthiness, intentional self-regulation, hopeful future expectations and better grades. (A separate 2018 survey showed that kids quit most sports by age 11.)
- Scouts who are engaged in Scouting programs – those who enjoy camping, have fun at meetings, wear the uniform, have friends in Scouting, have advancement goals and have family members participating – are more cheerful, helpful, kind, hopeful about the future and have higher intentional self-regulation.
In under 3 years, Cub Scouts already showed increases in 6 out of 10 character attributes compared to non-Scout peers.
Just imagine the results after more time in the program and Scouts BSA!
Adapted from "How Scouting Promotes Positive Character Development"
ScoutingWire, August 2015