Evaluation of the Bifactor Structure of the Dispositional Hope Scale

Abstract

The Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS; Snyder et al., 1991) is composed of items assessing an individual's perception of his or her agency and pathways. This study examined support for the bifactor structure and relation of the factors in this model with depressive symptoms. It also examined cross-gender measurement invariance for the bifactor model. A community sample of 413 women and 257 men completed the DHS. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated more support for the bifactor model than the 1- and 2-factor models. Results also indicated full measurement invariance across gender for the bifactor and the 2-factor models. The general and the specific agency factors, but not the specific pathways factor, correlated with depressive symptoms. The better support for the bifactor model suggests that ideally hope has to be measured and examined by factors reflecting high covariance for agency and pathways, and also factors reflecting unique variances for agency and pathways. The support for full cross-gender measurement invariance indicated that there are no differences in measurement and scaling properties for the DHS across ratings provided by women and men, and therefore the DHS ratings can be scored in the same way for women and men.

Relationship between hope and depression in college students: A cross‐lagged regression analysis

“…The autoregressive cross‐lagged model revealed a significant bidirectional relationship between pathways thinking and depression; specifically, levels of pathways thinking predicted depression levels, and depression levels predicted levels of pathways thinking. Pathways thinking refers to individuals' specific intentions and plans in the pursuit of goals, and it is a cognitive component of hope . Our results suggest that when individuals lack goals or the establishment of specific pathways and means via which to achieve goals, their depression levels are likely to increase.…”

Is grit relevant to well‐being and strengths? Evidence across the globe for separating perseverance of effort and consistency of interests

“…Some measures in psychological science have strongly related facets, thus offering a clear rationale for combining them. For example, the latent correlation between Snyder and colleagues' () Hope Scale facets ranged from .76 to .91 across four samples, and most research with the Hope Scale relies on total scores (Brouwer, Meijer, Weekers, & Baneke, ; Gomez et al, ). In comparison, the relationship between the two grit facets is significantly weaker.…”

Psychometric properties of Hope Scales: A systematic review

“…Sixteen (52%) of these studies were conducted in the United States . The remaining studies were conducted as follows: three (10%) in Australia, two (6%) in Portugal, two (6%) in France, one (3%) in Kuwait, one (3%) in Canada, one (3%) in the Philippines, one (3%) in Spain, one (3%) in Iran, one (3%) in Brazil, one (3%) in China, and one (3%) in Slovakia…”

“…Thirty papers were published in English and one in Portuguese. However, some of the studies were conducted in local countries that use languages other than English.…”