Character Education as a Foundation for Student Resilience: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Amid the escalating psychological and social challenges faced by K-12 students in the post-pandemic and digital era, character education has emerged as a critical determinant of psychological resilience. This study examines the global intellectual landscape and empirical mechanisms linking character education to multidimensional student resilience. Employing a hybrid methodology, we combined a macro-level bibliometric analysis of 31 Scopus-indexed documents (2021–2025) using R/Bibliometrix with a micro-level Systematic Literature Review (SLR) adhering to PRISMA 2020 guidelines across 9 K-12 empirical studies. Bibliometric mapping identified three primary co-occurrence clusters character strengths and psychometric measurement, school environment and student demographics, and psychological constructs and experimental interventions alongside four thematic quadrants. Qualitative synthesis revealed that internalizing core moral and spiritual character strengths (e.g., hope, self-control, and moral judgment) acts as a vital internal psychological buffer. This internalization fosters emotional resilience, ego-resiliency, cyber-resilience, and moral resilience among students. Furthermore, four high-impact school-based intervention strategies were identified: interactive digital pedagogy and serious games, digital citizenship integrated with religious moderation, moral role modeling by educators, and dual-layer school-family evaluation synergies. By bridging character education with positive youth development, this study offers a holistic framework for curriculum developers and educators to transition from authoritarian discipline toward contextual character mentoring in the digital age.