The Hopelessness Scale for Children: Psychometric characteristics and concurrent validity.

Abstract

The present study evaluated psychometric features and correlates of the Hopelessness Scale for Children among 262 child psychiatric inpatients (ages = 6 to 13 years old). Based on theory and research derived from the investigation of adult depression, hopelessness was examined in relation to depression, self-esteem, and social behavior. The results indicated that the scale was internally consistent, that item-total score correlations and test-retest reliability (over a 6-week period) were in the moderate range, and that individual items discriminated high and low hopelessness children. As predicted, hopelessness correlated positively with depression and negatively with self-esteem and social behavior. Overall, the relation of hopelessness to selected facets of affective and social functioning closely parallel results obtained with adults. Given the availability of a measure of hopelessness for children, several substantive questions regarding antecedents of negative expectations toward the future, the developmental course of these expectations, and the extent to which they predict subsequent dysfunction (e.g., suicidal behavior) in adolescence and adulthood warrant investigation.Hopelessness, or negative expectations toward the future, is considered to be a central feature of depression (Beck, 1976;Melges & Bowlby, 1969). Several years ago, Beck, Weissman, Lester, and Trexler (1974) developed a Hopelessness Scale to measure affective, motivational, and cognitive manifestations of these negative expectations in adults. The measure has been shown in several studies to correlate with depression and to predict suicidal ideation and attempt (e.g., Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 1975;Wetzel, Margulies, Davis, & Karam, 1980).The investigation of affective disorders in children has increased in recent years due in part to the application of adult diagnostic criteria to children and the emergence of several measures of depression (see Cantwell & Carlson, 1983;Petti, 1983). The investigation of hopelessness in children is especially interesting for several reasons. To begin with, many believe that negative expectations toward the future, often associated with depression in adults, are unlikely to be evident in children. The reason is the putative inability of children to conceptualize the future clearly (Bemporad & Wilson, 1978;Rie, 1966).Second, the assessment of dysfunction in children depends rather heavily on information provided by significant others, particularly parents and teachers. The measurement of private experience of children, as reflected in feelings and cognitions, remains relatively infrequent. Assessment of hopelessness pro-

Academic Pathways between Attention Problems and Depressive Symptoms Among Urban African American Children

“…The BHIF-YC-C was designed to be used as a first stage measure in two-stage epidemiologic investigations of the prevalence of child mood and anxiety disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987); therefore, BHIF-YC-C items map onto DSM-III-R criteria for major depression and overanxious and separation anxiety disorders. A pool of items was drawn from existing child self-report measures, including the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1992), the Depression Self-Rating Scale (Asarnow & Carlson, 1985), the Hopelessness Scale for Children (Kazdin et al, 1986) and the Revised-Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1979).…”

Risk Factors for Community Violence Exposure in Adolescence

“…; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Items were generated directly from DSM-IV criteria or drawn from existing child self-report measures, including the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1983), the Depression Self-Rating Scale (Asarnow & Carlson, 1985), the Hopelessness Scale for Children (Kazdin, Rodgers, & Colbus, 1986), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1985), and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (Spence, 1997). Summary scores are created by summing across the 19 depression items to yield a Depression subscale score; the sum of the remaining 26 items constitutes an Anxiety subscale score.…”

Randomized Trial of a Home-Based Family Intervention for Children Who Have Deliberately Poisoned Themselves

“…The primary outcome measures were validated in a pilot study conducted by the two outcomes assessors (Kerfoot et al, 1996) [15] and comprised the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (Reynolds, 1988) [22] and the Hopelessness Questionnaire (Kazdin et al, 1986) [12] completed by the patients, and a questionnaire measure of family functioning completed independently by both the patient and the parent(s) (Miller et al, 1985) [20].…”