title: The development and validation of the Children's Hope Scale.
abstract: Assuming that children are goal-oriented, it is suggested that their thoughts are related to two components--agency and pathways. Agency thoughts reflect the perception that children can initiate and sustain action toward a desired goal; pathways thoughts reflect the children's perceived capability to produce routes to those goals. Hope reflects the combination of agentic and pathways thinking toward goals. A six-item dispositional self-report index called the Children's Hope Scale is introduced and validated for use with children ages 8-16. Results suggest that the scale evidence internal consistency, and is relatively stable over retesting. Additionally, the scale exhibits convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity. Limitations and uses of the scale are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045-2462, USA.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hoza
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Pelham
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rapoff
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ware
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Danovsky
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Highberger
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rubinstein
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Stahl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001240:Aspirations, Psychological; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013850:Thinking