Character Is Common Sense: A Report on an Initiative Linking Media, Kids, and Character Strengths

This research report details the Common Sense methodology for developing the first-of-its-kind tagging system that identifies movies and TV programs that promote core character strengths and life skills. In this report we describe insights gleaned from our work, which included an extensive literature review of multiple academic fields, with a focus on our core competencies: kids and media. We also report the results of evaluation research conducted with parents and educators in focus groups and in a small intervention study, conducted in three different cities and in English and Spanish. Our insights demonstrate that parents are very interested in finding media content that can guide positive youth character development. Take a look at the Character Strengths and Life Skills topic center and the Best for Character Development lists to find great content and parent resources.