A study of protective factors against substance use and sexual risk taking was conducted among 610 high-poverty urban youth. Higher levels of family attachment, social support, involvement, and self-esteem were associated with lower levels of risk behaviors.

The results of this preliminary study of 94 healthcare providers show that they had high hope levels when working with patients infected with HIV. The providers named imparting hope during the counseling process as the most important intervention for increasing patients' treatment adherence. Although half of the respondents had uncertain expectations for the future of their patients, more than one third had hopeful expectations, with only a small minority having hopeless expectations. An overwhelming majority reported they did not have negative attitudes toward or uncomfortable feelings when working with patients who were infected with HIV, regardless of method of acquiring HIV, gender, or sexual orientation. Moreover, respondents seemed to have a balanced emotional state, with the majority reporting that they experienced more positive emotions than negative emotions when working with their patients over time. Implications for healthcare providers are discussed.

Possessing hope and utilizing laughter and humor to cope with life's stressors and losses are especially important to elderly people as they experience a decline in their independence. In this study, hope levels and laughter and humor experiences of 24 elderly residents (ages 69 to 96 years) and 21 staff at an assisted living facility were assessed and compared. Hope was defined as a two-factor cognitive construct that involves (a) Pathways, an individual's ability to set goals and devise multiple plans to reach them, and (b) Agency, an individual's inner determination to implement these plans and overcome obstacles to the goals. Both residents and staff had high total Hope and Pathways scores, but residents' Agency scores were significantly higher than staff's. Residents and staff reported numerous benefits from humor and laughing, but differences arose between the two groups about the sources and frequency of humor and laughter. Differences were found between more-hopeful and less-hopeful respondents in regards to sources of laughter, benefits of laughing and playing more, and the last time they laughed. Implications for mental health counselors are discussed.

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.

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