Hope is an important predictor of successful adjustment to illness and a protective factor for enhancing resilience and quality of life in adolescents with cancer (AWC). There are few psychometrically sound instruments to measure hope in AWC. To address survivorship issues of children and AWC across time and to compare hope across the life-span, there is a need to examine whether measures of hope appropriate for adults are also psychometrically appropriate for AWC. The advantages of using a scale that has evidence of reliability and validity with both adults and adolescents include the ability to: (1) measure hope across developmental stages; (2) measure changes in hope scores over time in adult survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer; and (3) compare hope scores among adolescents, young adults and older adults with cancer. The study examined the psychometric properties of the Herth Hope Scale (HHS) and the shorter version, Herth Hope Index (HHI) that were used to measure hope in three studies with AWC. The HHS was completed by adolescents (N=73) diagnosed with asthma, cystic fibrosis, or cancer. The HHI was completed by AWC (N=127) at various stages of treatment and newly diagnosed AWC (N=74). To evaluate the psychometric properties of the HHS and HHI, we examined the internal consistency reliability with Cronbach’s alpha, which ranged from .78 to .91. Convergent validity was evaluated by comparing hope scores with resilience and quality of life outcomes derived from the Adolescent Resilience Model. Discriminant validity was examined by comparing hope scores with illness related distress factors. The results indicate the HHS does not contribute enough additional information to warrant using the longer form for research or practice. The HHI is likely a useful measure of hope in AWC. The sensitivity of the measure to changes needs to be further evaluated.
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)