title: Hopelessness in community-residing aged persons: a viable construct?
abstract: Previous work with the Geriatric Hopelessness Scale (GHS; Fry, 1984, 1986) suggests that it may be a useful measure of pessimism for a variety of domains among elderly persons. One hundred seven community-residing aged persons were individually administered the GHS and a variety of personality and cognitive functioning measures in an effort to further refine and validate the GHS. Results suggest very modest internal consistency and a poorly defined factor structure for the GHS, in contrast to earlier findings. Although the GHS failed to differentiate elderly persons by age, it was nonetheless related to self-esteem, depression, self-rated health, internality, morale, and life satisfaction. Taken together, these data indicate that the research and clinical utility of the GHS with community-residing aged persons may be more limited than previously believed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton 76203.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hayslip
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nation
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012931:Social Environment