Scouting Promotes Positive Character Development

We knew that already!
What's new is that Tufts University agrees!

The Cradle of Liberty Council commissioned a respected psychologist at Tufts University to give some scientific basis to what we already know. He conducted a 2½ year study complete with control groups and tracking data to come up with a number of heart-warming results.

The results were summarized in an article in the "ScoutingWire" newsletter by BSA Communications Specialist Hayley Cordaro, and can be found at: http://scoutingwire.org/how-scouting-promotes-positive-character-development/

The study was done by Richard M. Lerner, professor of psychology at Tufts University, who specializes in youth development. He compared Cub Scouts to a control group of same-age and same-everything-else. He compared Scouts who stuck with the program to boys who dropped out. He compared Scouts who were active to Scouts who rarely attended. He compared Eagle Scouts to non-Eagles. And so on.

As a sample of Lerner's findings, here's one paragraph from the ScoutingWire article:

• 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.