Hope in Schools 13
Running head: PROMOTING HOPE IN SCHOOLS
Promoting Hope: Suggestions for School Counselors
Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Lisa M. Edwards
Marquette University
Shane J. Lopez
University of Kansas
Abstract
School counselors need multiple resources to assist today’s students in developing to their fullest potential. This development might often be measured outwardly by academic success, however psychological and emotional well-being of students is a large part of this success. The construct of hope is defined as a bidimensional characteristic consisting of an agency component (willpower to move toward one’s goals) and a pathways component (the ability to develop multiple routes to one’s goals) and has been linked to academic success, athletic performance, psychological adjustment, and physical health in students (Snyder et al., 1991). Helping school counselors to enhance individual strengths through the promotion of characteristics such as hope may result in multiple benefits for students and their school environments at large. Studies involving hope and its correlates are discussed and suggestions for appropriate and feasible interventions in this area are given.
Promoting Hope: Suggestions for School Counselors
School counselors are uniquely positioned to help students define, work towards, and reach their goals in many life arenas. Though identifying and preventing problems that hinder youth’s success is important, balancing these efforts with a deeper examination of “what works” for students can ultimately reveal individual goals that matter to these students, strategies that can be used to pursue those goals, and the motivation that can keep them on track (Galassi & Akos, 2007). Indeed, using approaches designed to identify and enhance strengths can assist students in achieving to their fullest potential. Hope is conceptualized as a process of goal pursuit involving the generation of multiple routes toward a chosen goal and maintenance of motivational levels needed to make progress along these routes (Snyder et al., 1991). This article will detail Snyder’s hope theory and research, giving special emphasis to the role school counselors can play in enhancing students’ hope and, in turn, the promotion of personal and social well-being, career development, and academic achievement (American School Counselors Association [ASCA], 2005).
In thinking about helping students to become more hopeful, it is important to note that that this process involves teaching a set of skills that build on what children do naturally: think about the future. With this strength-based guidance from school counselors, children can learn how to describe important goals that are clear, specific and that add something to their lives.
Hope Theory
Over the past 20 years, C. R. Snyder and his colleagues have developed a theory and associated measures of hope that have received much attention both within and outside the field of psychology (Edwards, Rand, Lopez, & Snyder, 2006). In his seminal book, The Psychology of Hope (1994), Snyder described his theory and early research efforts to understand and measure hope. He described hope in primarily cognitive terms, though the theory evolved to include emotions as well (Snyder, 2000b).
According to Snyder and colleagues (1991, p. 287), hope is defined as “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals).” This model involves three interrelated components--goals, agency, and pathways (Snyder, Ilardi, Michael, & Cheavens, 2000). Pathways and agency thinking are positively related, additive and reciprocal, but neither component alone defines hope, nor are they synonymous.
Goals are the anchor of hope theory, as they are the targets of mental action sequences (Snyder et al., 2000). Individuals’ goals must fall somewhere in the middle of a probability of an attainment continuum going from goals that are absolutely certain of being achieved to those that are untenable (Edwards et al., 2006). To reach goals, people must perceive that they are capable of imagining one or more routes, or pathways, to their goals. Snyder (1994) described pathways thinking, the second component of hope, as the mental capacity necessary to reach goals. When barriers to desired goals emerge, as they inevitably do, the mental flexibility of pathways thinking allows people to navigate those obstacles and find alternate routes. For example, if a child is learning to play soccer, it might be difficult for her to find time to practice. Pathways thoughts could be those which encourage her to prioritize after school activities, schedule specific practice times with friends, and create a personal system of rewards in order to increase soccer practice time.
Agency is the third component of hope, and it refers to the motivation that propels individuals to initiate and sustain movement towards their goals (Snyder, 1994). People with agency, also known as willpower, are able to remain determined and utilize their mental energy to move around obstacles and stay focused on achieving their goals. For the child trying to play soccer better, agency thoughts would be those reminders she tells herself to persist with practicing, focus on improvements, and keep working towards her goal of playing soccer.
It is important for school counselors to take cultural context into account, as well, in developing appropriate interventions for students of all backgrounds. In thinking about strengths such as hope as they apply to a diverse population, it is important to be aware of differences in time orientation, value systems, and feasibility of personal choice (Pedrotti, 2007). For example, the hope process, with its future orientation may not fit as well for cultural groups who do not ascribe to this orientation to time such as Eastern cultures. In addition, individuals from cultures who are more collectivist in nature (e.g., Asian, Latino) may feel that group goals, as opposed to individual, are more pertinent. Finally, sources of agency and motivation may not come from personal stores but may be rooted in familial responsibility, or filial piety (Pedrotti). The hope model may still be used with individuals from these cultures, but at times modifications must be made to ensure relevance and respect for differences. School counselors must be aware of these potential differences in order to appropriately integrate and acknowledge the unique cultural contexts of all students.
Hope and its Relationship to Positive Constructs and Outcomes
Snyder and colleagues’ (1991) concept of hope has been studied in many contexts and several positive correlates to this construct have been found in youth. Many of these constructs are directly related to goals school counselors may have in developing certain types of strengths in their students. Enhancement of hope within students can assist with development in areas of personal and social, academic, and career development (ASCA, 2005).
Hope and Personal/Social Contexts
It is not surprising to find that hope is related to many other positive constructs within the realm of personal and social life. Magaletta and Oliver (1999) examined relationships between hope and both self-efficacy and optimism and found positive and statistically significant relationships between these pairs. In addition, hope has been linked with self-esteem (Snyder et al., 1997), self-worth (Curry, Snyder, Cook, Ruby, & Rehm, 1997), beliefs about ability to accomplish goals (Snyder, Sympson, Michael, & Cheavens, 2000), and life satisfaction (Chang, 1998). Studies have also shown that low hope is predictive of depression as well (Kwon, 2000) and higher hope has been found to be related to lower levels of depression in children (Snyder et al., 1997). Hope is termed “a psychological strength” by Valle, Huebner, and Suldo (2006) and was found in their study of adolescents to function as a moderator or buffer between difficult experiences in life and well-being. Finally, Barnum, Snyder, Rapoff, Mani, and Thompson (1998) found that adolescent burn survivors with higher hope related to caregivers more positively, and also engaged in fewer activities that undermined recovery. Though links between these various constructs and hope are strong, it is important to note that hope, optimism and self-efficacy are uniquely predictive of outcomes and are thus distinct constructs (Magaletta & Oliver). The above constructs are much-desired qualities and can promote social and psychological wellness in all students (Miller, Gilman, & Martens, 2008). Fostering these types of personal traits can have carry-over effects into academic and future work domains as well.
Hope and Academic Performance
Hope has been linked to academic benefits in several studies. Anderson (1988) found that IQ scores were significantly and positively linked to hope, and Snyder and colleagues (Snyder, 2002; Snyder et al., 1991; Snyder et al., 1997) have studied the relationship between grade point average and hope and found similar results. Hope has also been linked to self-efficacy (Magaletta & Oliver, 1999) and scholastic competence (Onwuegbuzie, 1999), as well as problem-solving (McDermott et al., 2000). Finally, other studies have found that “hope in the future” (as measured by answers to questions regarding the importance of attending college, the likelihood of having a good job by age 30, and the likelihood of having a “dismal” future) is inversely linked dropout rates in adolescents (Worrell & Hale, 2001, p. 378).
Hope and Career-Building Skills
Positive traits such as hope, self-efficacy, problem-solving and optimism may also assist students in developing good skills in vocational development. Diemer and Bluestein (2007) studied the “vocational hope” (p. 98) of adolescents in urban settings and found that this construct was related to positive vocational identity development. These researchers showed links between the ability to persist toward vocational goals despite various obstacles that may occur. Other studies (e.g., Super, 1980) have shown that a future-oriented identity is positively correlated toward a beneficial vocational identity as well and thus Snyder’s (2002) hope model may be particularly beneficial in this work. Diemer and Bluestein suggest that interventions designed to enhance vocational hope may assist in managing both external and internal threats to the career development goals of urban adolescents. These practical implications may be extended to include any school-aged child or adolescent dealing with obstacles in this area.
The previously discussed studies show that hope is related to many positive constructs and outcomes; thus it follows that cultivating and enhancing hope in youth may improve current and future functioning. Miller and colleagues (2008) state that “educational facilities are ideal settings for providing interventions and prevention programs that promote hope and optimism” (p. 6) due to the large amount of time that students spend in this venue. Thus school counselors are uniquely equipped to help students to build these types of resources and to offer programming to address these topics with both students and parents.
Assessment of Hope
One of the issues that has plagued research in the areas of wellness and health promotion is the incorrect belief that assessment of positive characteristics, such as hope, well-being, optimism, and others, is impossible due to their amorphous nature (Snyder & Lopez, 2007). There are, in fact, many methods of measurement of these types of constructs. Snyder and colleagues (1991) developed the Adult Hope Scale, a 12-item self-report measure that asks questions related to goal processes. Answers range on a four-point Likert scale from “Definitely False” to “Definitely True.” Psychometrics have been established for this measure (Snyder et al., 1991) and it has been used in hundreds of studies to better understand hope in adults. This measure was then adapted by Snyder and colleagues (1997) to forms that could be used for school-aged children (Children’s Hope Scale; CHS). Snyder, Feldman, Shorey, and Rand (2002) state that in addition to measuring global hope, it is also important to measure domain-specific hope. Some studies have found that while global hope may be high for students, hope in the specific domain of academics may be lacking (Snyder, Feldman, Shorey, & Rand, 2002). Thus, measurement across several levels may be appropriate, and the Domain Specific Hope Scale may be useful for this assessment (Sympson, 1999).
The Children’s Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder et al., 1997) is a six-item self-report scale that asks questions about how children think and feel about their goals and the steps they take to reach them. Answers on this scale range from “None of the Time” to “All of the time” on a six-point Likert scale. Three of the six items (items 2, 4, and 6) can be summed to form a “Pathways” subscale (e.g., "I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are most important to me") and the other three (items 1, 3, and 5) sum to form an “Agency” subscale agency (e.g., "I think I am doing pretty well"). A copy of the scale is included in Appendix A. The CHS was developed for use with children ages 7 to 16, and support for reliability and validity, as well as factor structure, has been established in many different populations of youth (Lopez, Snyder, & Pedrotti, 2003).
Despite mean-level analyses of race and gender (Snyder et al., 1997; Valle, Huebner, & Suldo, 2004), further basic information is needed to understand hope in other non-European American populations. Support has been found for a hierarchical representation of the CHS with two underlying factors (pathways and agency) within Mexican American youth (Edwards, Ong & Lopez, 2007). CHS scores were found to be positively correlated with measures of positive affect, life satisfaction, support from family and friends, and optimism, and additional analyses provided evidence supporting convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender. In addition, recent investigations of hope in African American youth have provided support for the reliability and validity of the CHS with this population (Valle, Huebner, & Suldo).More information is needed regarding conceptual equivalence of the construct of hope across cultures.
The CHS is a well-researched assessment tool that has been used in numerous studies and settings to understand hope in youth (Edwards et al., 2006). School counselors may consider using the CHS in order to chart individual student progress, conduct research about hope and other outcomes in schools, and provide evidence-based support for related interventions that target hope and/or well-being (ASCA, 2005). In addition, once a level of hope has been established for a student or group of youth, school counselors can monitor this level as they teach children about the strategies described in the hope model itself.