Research on the development of values in childhood and adolescence is recent and has increased rapidly in the last years within the framework of Schwartz’s (1994, 2012) theory of human values. This literature is relevant to inform school policy reforms and curricula development, especially as educational systems are required to monitor, support, and foster the awareness and development of values in children and adolescents. Recently, the Portuguese Ministry of Education has put forward a curricular reform that calls schools to work towards the development of a holistic student profile. This includes an array of values that can be mapped to Schwartz’s (1994, 2012) higher-order values dimensions (e.g., Openness to Change: Freedom, Curiosity, Reflection and Innovation; Self-transcendence: Responsibility, Integrity, Citizenship and Participation; and Self-promotion: Excellence). The reform poses a significant challenge to Portuguese schools, given their insufficient knowledge on values assessment and how to gear curricula and teaching towards the development of the student profile values. In this context, the present study aims to examine the validity of the Portuguese version of the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C) (Döring et al., 2010), a tool to assess children’s values hierarchy and structure. To address this aim, we will present two studies. In the first study, the PBVS-C was administered to 218 children (6 to 10-year-olds) attending public elementary schools. Data was collected in-person by trained researchers in the school setting before the COVID-19 pandemic (October-December 2019). In the second study, a short version of PBVS-C was administered to 1744 children/adolescents (from 6 to 14 years) attending public or private schools. Data was collected online during the first lockdown (May-July 2020). Parents were asked to help younger children complete the PBVS-C, when necessary. The results from multidimensional scaling analyses in both studies show that the value structures of Portuguese children and adolescents closely resemble the ones found in adult and adolescent samples. Consistent with some previous studies with children, some deviations to the theoretical model were also found. Regarding the hierarchy of values, and consistent with the Portuguese student profile, young children (6 to 10 years) consider Benevolence and Universalism as the most important values and Power as the least important before and during the lockdown. These results show that the PBVS-C can be used as a valid in-person and online tool to assess Portuguese children’s values, and in that way support schools navigate the ongoing school curricular reform in Portugal.

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children,values,PBVS-C,school,education

• Psychology - Social Sciences
• Sociology - Social Sciences