Hope For Children Research Articles

Use of the “Mental Health Inventory – 5” with Portuguese 10-15 Years Old

The present study describes the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Mental Health Inventory-5 for use with young adolescents. A sample of 367 Portuguese students (aged 10-15 years) completed the Portuguese-language versions of Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; Berwick et al., 1991), Children's Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder et al., 1997), Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner, 1991a), and Global Self-Worth Sub-scale (Harter, 1985). Analysis of readability, reliability (internal consistency and 1-year stability), factor structure, and criterion-related validity suggested that the MHI-5 can be appropriately used in this age group. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Parental loss and hope among orphaned children in South Africa: A pilot study

In this pilot study, the Children's Hope Scale was used for the first time in Africa to compare hope levels among a sample of 41 orphans and 40 non-orphans, aged 8–16 years, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Contrary to results suggested by other regional data and their own hypothesis, authors found that orphaned children reported slightly higher levels of agency thinking overall, with more pronounced differences between orphan girls and their non-orphan counterparts. A possible explanation may be found in the diverse set of individuals that orphans access for support. Policy and practice implications are discussed in the context of sub-Saharan Africa.

Exploring the Mental Life and Home Life of Children: The Role of a Television History

Media entertainment is a pervasive presence in the lives of our children. It presents a series of stories that a child can select as important or intriguing to him or her. A good history of television and media viewing uses this omnipresent influence in a child's life to attempt to gain insight into the child's hopes and fears as well as information concerning the structure of the home. It is a useful exercise that could be done with each new child patient, and could provide a quick means to assess the child's thoughts as well as assessing the child's home environment.

Journey of a Deaf-Blind Woman

Journey of a Deaf-Blind Woman

Hope in the age of anxiety

Introduction PART ONE: THE ROOTS OF HOPE: Understanding Your Hope Legacy 1. Rekindling Hope: Honoring the Fire Within 2. The Far-Flashing Beam: Perspectives on Hope 3. Pillars of Humanity: Hope Across Time 4. Cultures of Hope: Absorbing the Virtues of a Community 5. Religions of Hope: Allies in the Sky 6. Faith: The Assurance of Things Hoped For 7. Spiritual Growth: The Lifecycle of Hope 8. Spiritual Intelligence: Developing a Smart Soul PART TWO: THE WINGS OF HOPE: Beams of Power, Presence and Protection 9. Attachment Matters: Love Always Hopes 10. Mastery and Inspiration: Your Life is Calling 11. Survival Skills: Becoming a Knight of Faith 12. From Fear to Hope: Peace in Troubled Waters 13. Overcoming Hopelessness: Escape from Darkness 14. Hope for Children: Gifts for Today and Tomorrow 15. Hope and Healing: Why Hope is the Best Medicine 16. Hope for Health: Prescriptions for Wellbeing Notes Bibliography Index

Hope for Children Trapped in Failing Schools: The Promise of Crawford v. Davy

On October 4, 2007, a trial level court in New Jersey dismissed Crawford v. Davy, a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 60,000 schoolchildren throughout the state seeking the court's authority to leave schools that fail to educate their students. By filing suit, plaintiff schoolchildren had hoped to be transferred to an alternative successful public or private school utilizing their pro rata share of state and local school funds to subsidize the transfer. Now, the dismissal of Crawford consigns these children to poor inadequate neighborhood schools indefinitely. If the dismissal of Crawford v. Davy is not reversed on appeal, it will not only extinguish the hope of plaintiff schoolchildren to receive an equal and adequate educational opportunity, but could threaten the right of a thorough and efficient education guaranteed by the State Constitution and reverse gains achieved over the past 40 years in New Jersey's education jurisprudence. This article places Crawford in the context of the state's enduring legal struggle to equalize educational opportunities and discusses its claims and purposes in relation to that history. The article then addresses the significance of the Crawford dismissal on the state's legal precedents, especially rulings in the on-going Abbott v. Burke equity funding litigation. Finally, the article concludes with a prediction of the impact that Crawford's dismissal may pose for the larger equity/adequacy litigation movement playing out across the country. For the moment, the hope of 60,000 plaintiff schoolchildren is diminished. Only time and New Jersey's appellate courts will dictate whether their hope for an equal and adequate education shall survive.

Relations among school connectedness, hope, life satisfaction, and bully victimization

AbstractThis study investigates the role of school connectedness in mediating the relation between students' sense of hope and life satisfaction for three groups: Bullied Victims, Peer Victims, and Nonvictims. Students in grades 5 to 12 (N = 866) completed the California Bully/Victim Scale, School Connectedness Scale, Children's Hope Scale, and Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Multigroup latent mean analysis revealed significant group mean differences in hope, school connectedness, and life satisfaction, supporting our bullying classification. Multigroup structural model analysis showed differential patterns between hope, school connectedness, and life satisfaction. Specifically, school connectedness partially mediated the relation between hope and life satisfaction for the Nonvictims only. The effect of hope on school connectedness was stronger for the Bullied Victims than the Nonvictims, and the effect of hope on life satisfaction was stronger for the Peer Victims and Bullied Victims than the Nonvictims group. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Increasing Academic Motivation in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students From Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds

According to research, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have lower rates of high school graduation and university attendance. There is little research regarding interventions to address these issues. The current study compared the effects of two programs designed to increase academic motivation. Forty-seven high school female athletes from culturally and linguistically diverse and economically disadvantaged backgrounds participated in the study. The programs were implemented over a 12-week period, 2 days per week within the school day. One group received instruction using a program that was designed by the school's physical education faculty. The other group received instruction using the Possible Selves program (Hock, Schumaker, & Deshler, 2003). The researchers investigated the effects of the programs with regard to the students' level of hope for the future as measured by the Children's Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1994), records of the students' grades and number of administrative behavioral referrals, students' self-reports about their participation, and researchers' evaluation of the students' goals. The results did not indicate a difference in the students' hopes for the future. There was little difference in overall grade point averages and no difference in behavioral referrals between the two groups. The students' perceptions of their participation in the programs were similar. However, the students in the Possible Selves group indicated that they received more support from an adult during their program, and they reported higher levels of effort toward academics than the comparison group. The most significant finding was a difference in the quality of goals written. The Possible Selves group wrote goals and action plans that were more specific and realistic.

The relationship of children's hope to pediatric asthma treatment adherence

This study investigated the relationship between hope and adherence to a daily inhaled steroid regimen among 48 asthma patients ages 8–12 years old who participated in a 14 day adherence assessment. Participants completed the Children's Hope Scale, and parents completed a questionnaire aimed at demographic and disease-related information. Adherence was measured by electronic monitoring of the use of the participant's metered-dose inhaler. A multivariate model predicting nonadherence was built, including FEV1 in the first step and children's hope level in the second step. This model was a significant predictor of adherence (Nagelkerke R 2 = 0.24, p = 0.01). No other demographic or psychosocial variables were significant predictors of adherence. These findings highlight the need to attend to psychosocial predictors of adherence, specifically hope, and may help practitioners target these factors in their efforts to increase adherence among pediatric asthma patients.

The Impact of a Child's Chronic Illness on Hopeful Thinking in Children and Parents

The current study investigated the impact of a child's congenital or acquired chronic illness on hope scores reported by children and parents (N= 132). Hope was conceptualised as a cognitive process comprised of a reciprocally derived sense of successful pathways (the ability to visualize goals) and agency (the determination to reach those goals) (Snyder et al., 1991). As expected, children with a chronic illness (congenital or acquired) and their parents reported lower scores than their equivalents without a chronic illness. Moreover, children's hope scores were higher when their illness was congenital, and parents' scores were higher when a child's illness was acquired. Children's hope scores were predicted by self–efficacy and interaction difficulties. Parents' hope scores were predicted by self–efficacy and depression. These results have practical implications for clinicians seeking to inspire hope when a child faces chronic illness, suggesting that hope–based interventions need to be tailored to suit the individual and onset of illness.

Hope Measurement in Mexican American Youth

Hope is a motivational construct that has been associated with many positive outcomes in children, adolescents, and adults. Although research with the Children's Hope Scale (CHS) has demonstrated support for the reliability and validity of the CHS with various samples of youth, there is little empirical evidence for its use with Latino youth. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the six-item CHS in a sample of 135 Mexican American youth. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a hierarchical representation of the CHS with two underlying factors (pathways and agency). CHS scores were found to be positively correlated with measures of positive affect, life satisfaction, support from family and friends, and optimism. Additional analyses provided evidence supporting convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Mom's Obesity Dims Child's Weight-Loss Hopes

Mom's Obesity Dims Child's Weight-Loss Hopes

VOICES SELDOM HEARD

This study chronicles one of poverty's most egregious outcomes—child prostitution. Rather than share sanitized descriptions of this condition from agency surveys and final reports from non-governmental organizations, this study investigates child prostitution through the voices of children themselves. Through the words of children interviewed, we learn how these children became entangled in this deadly profession, the impact it has had on their lives, and how well-intentioned agencies working on this issue might be more effective. Most poignantly, however, we learn of these children's hopes for a better life. Implications with particular focus upon education conclude this article.

Relative Levels of Hope and Their Relationship With Academic and Psychological Indicators Among Adolescents

The major goals of this study were to (a) investigate the relationships among adolescent students' levels of hope and various academic and psychological indicators of school adjustment, and (b) determine critical levels of hope associated with these indicators. Using the Children's Hope Scale (Snyder, Hoza et al., 1997), results from a hierarchical cluster analysis placed youth into a low, average, and high hope group. Youth in the high hope group differed from students with low hope on all independent measures. Further, youth reporting high hope also differed from students reporting average levels of hope on personal adjustment, global life satisfaction, and self-reported grade point average. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Adolescent Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana Use: The Influence of Neighborhood Disorder and Hope

To investigate relationships between adolescents' current alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use; perceptions of neighborhood disorder; and sense of hope. Questionnaires were administered to a nonrandom sample of middle school students during the spring of 1999. The ethnically and geographically diverse sample (n = 369), from a range of low socioeconomic status backgrounds, was considered to be at high risk for alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use because of previous enrollment in low socioeconomic status elementary schools. Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use were dichotomized into current and never/no use. Six variables described neighborhood social disorder. Sense of hope was assessed using the Children's Hope Scale. Statistically significant relationships were found between perceived neighborhood disorder and current alcohol (p = .01), tobacco (p = .001), and marijuana (p < .001) use. A statistically significant and independent relationship was found between sense of hope and current alcohol (p = .02), tobacco (p = .02), and marijuana (p = .06) use. Results indicated linear trends in participants' increased use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and (1) perception of higher neighborhood disorder and (2) lower sense of hope. Substance use prevention programs for youth might usefully be directed not only to adolescents but also to the neighborhoods in which they live. Additionally, it would be important to emphasize creating safer neighborhood environments that support the development of a stronger sense of hope for the future.

A criança abrigada: considerações acerca do sentido da filiação

The present study discusses the meaning of family bonding for sheltered children, victims of domestic violence. These children's hope of recovering the family ties is analyzed as a search for a psychosocial status. The sheltered children, who suffered a rupture in the primeval filiation and history of life, float among ephemeral bonding, without references of their past and without fixed and solid points for their establishment in the present to serve as a guide or new filiations. Such condition of unfilial behavior is focused as a tendency of the c ontemporary society in loosening bonding, moving psychosocial status and p roducing non-stable situations favoring a movable subjectivity where family ties is not a priority. As a conclusion, it is appointed a historical continuity of oppression of the childhood caused by the condition of transitional attachment in their lives, impeding the building of solid and long term ties in order to allow a sufficient stability and support to face life.

Family Functioning and Hope in Children With Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

To examine the relationships among family functioning, hope, and quality of life in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Sixty-eight children (8 to 12 years of age) with a diagnosis of JRA and one of their parents/guardians participated in this descriptive correlational study. Parents completed the Feetham Family Functioning Survey (FFFS), the Parent Report for Children Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), and the Parent Report for Children PedsQL Rheumatology Module. The children completed the Children's Hope Scale (CHS), the Child Report for PedsQL, and the Child Report PedsQL Rheumatology Module. Data were analyzed using chi-square, t-tests, and correlation analyses. Family functioning and children's hope showed a negative correlation, indicating that a child's hope was lower when the parent reported greater dissatisfaction with family functioning. Hope was not related to parent or child ratings of the child's quality of life. In caring for children with JRA, nurses can assess the family's satisfaction with relationships to the broader community, subsystems, and individual members and seek ways to promote healthy family functioning. Nurses also can assess the level of hope in children with JRA and facilitate the development of hopefulness by helping children establish goals and develop strategies to meet them.

Further Evaluation of the Children's Hope Scale

Two studies addressed the psychometric properties of the Children's Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder et al., 1997). A sample of 460 high school students was administered the CHS along with measures of life satisfaction, extraversion, neuroticism, social support, and externalizing and internalizing behaviors. The results revealed adequate internal consistency for the CHS for research purposes. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis procedures supported the correlated, two-factor conceptual model underlying the CHS. Finally, evidence of criterion-related validity was provided. The findings were replicated with a sample of 531 middle school students. Taken together, the studies extend support for the reliability and validity of the CHS with adolescents.

The Relationship Between a Child's Hope, a Parent's Hope, and Student‐Directed, Goal‐Oriented Academic Instruction

Levels of hope, the pathways and agency components, were measured in 46 children and 1 of their parents. After 4 weeks of goal‐oriented academic instruction, pretest‐posttest results showed that children's Pathways scores increased. Parents' Hope scores were not correlated to their child's scores. Children's Agency scores were correlated to the parents' estimations.

Harry Potter and the “Deeper Magic”: Narrating Hope in Children's Literature

With the remarkable 3.5 million first printing of Harry and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth volume in the series, thirty-seven-year-old Joanna Kathleen Rowling has achieved the dream of every adult or children's author: people everywhere are buying, reading, writing, and talking about Harry You don't have be a wizard or a kid, says columnist Cathy Hainer in USA Today, to appreciate the spell cast by Harry Potter. Roger Sutton, editor of one of the best-known journals in the field of children's literature, Hornbook Magazine, rained on Rowling's parade by judging the first book critically insignificant (500), but sales of the first four novels--Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997), Harry and the Chamber of Secrets (1999), Harry and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), and Harry and the Goblet of Fire (2000)--have earned their author over $30 million date (Abanes 8n2). Her American publisher, Scholastic Inc., has made more than that, already as much as $200 million according some estimates (Abanes 2), and will make even more when the remaining three novels are published in 2002 and 2003. Who could have predicted that Rowling, a single mother on welfare, would produce the `cash cow' (qtd. in Sokoloff) or, as others have said, the golden goose of the century (Maslin), inspiring a huge industry in everything from lunch boxes and beach towels coloring books and jelly beans? And, since she recently sold the film rights for the complete series Warner Brothers, the first film, Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone, earning $31.3 million on the first day, with ABC picking up the television rights in a deal estimated at $140 million, there no doubt will be more products come (Abramowitz and Day). Meanwhile Rowling has toured the United States and Europe, been on dozens of talk shows, and was even invited Buckingham Palace, where she received the Order of the British Empire (Soares). By any estimate this first-time author has made a significant contribution the field of children's literature. In questioning the critical significance of Harry Potter, Sutton perhaps means imply that these books, while wildly popular with the masses, are not be read or taken seriously by scholars. Some scholars, however, are taking them seriously. Nicholas Tucker's The Rise and Rise of Harry Potter in Children's Literature in Education contextualizes Rowling's work within the fairy-tale tradition. popularity of Rowling's determinedly old-fashioned (222) fairy tale suggests that modern children and their parents are tired of contemporary realism in children's fiction--stories about drugs, alcohol, divorce, and sex, none of which appear so far in the series. What we have instead is a distinctly backward-looking fantasy of the children's boarding-school variety that, according Tucker, caters the escapist dreams of anyone who ever went school and didn't like it. Harry contains melodrama, moral certainty, and agreeable wish fulfillment, which makes it but not great literature (228). Still, we should not write off the series altogether because three titles remain. Perhaps it will get better. Feminist critic Deborah Thompson loves the series but cautions against unbridled adulation because, despite the cute fun and the magic, Harry contains gendered images more common the mid-twentieth century than the twenty-first (42). Boy wizards like Harry have all the fun while girl wizards like his friend, Hermione, mope around, nag, or go the library. Children's fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes agrees. fantasy world in Harry is not skeptical enough about the original messages of conventional fairy tales, which, claims Zipes, were sexist and patriarchal. Like all the other one-dimensional good characters in the story, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger circle around Harry with his phallic wand in order highlight his extraordinary role as Boy Scout/detective (180). …