The Developmental Trajectories And Effect Factors Of Hope And Its Relations With Mental Health On College Students

Background:Hope is a common psychological phenomenon, which is the core concept of positive psychology. It is also recognized as one of the24kinds of positive personality strengths, and it has great significance to people’s adjustment and development.So far, western psychologists have carried out some meaningful research on hope, while domestic psychologists don’t pay enough attention to such an important concept,thus relevant empirical research is still relatively in lack. Mainly basing on Snyder’s hope theory and taking college students as subjects, this research examined the measurement structure, effect factors and developmental trajectories of hope, as well as its relationship with mental health.Purpose:(1) To test the measurement invariance of Snyder’s hope scale on Chinese college students, and to compare Chinese college students’hope and American students’hope.(2) To analyze four measurement models of hope and find the optimal measurement structure.(3) To explore the main effect factors of hope from perspectives of demography factors, social factors, individual personality traits, and psychological factors;(4) To explore the developmental and changing regularity of college students’hope.(5) To analyze the relations between college students’ hope and mental health.Object and method:(1) Testing the cross-cultural measurement equivalence of Snyder’ hope scale on the sample of255Chinese college students and224American college students.(2)759college students were assessed with Snyder’s et al hope scale, confirmatory factor analysis method was used to compare four measurement models of hope such as the single factor model, the two factor model, the second order model and the bi-factor model.(3) A cross-sectional survey was implemented on759college students. Average difference test was used to explore the relations between hope and demographic factors, stepwise regression was used to investigate big five personality’s effect on hope.(4) A cross-sectional survey was implemented on330college students to explore the effect of social support on hope; as well as the multivariate mediating effect of self-efficacy and self-esteem.(5) A one-year longitudinal study was implemented on408college students who were measured four times in total.Latent Growth Model (LGM) and Latent Mixed Growth Model (LMGM) were used to investigate the developmental trajectories of hope from two perspectives:one was the average tendency and the individual differences, another was the related effect factors (gender, emotional state) on the developmental trajectories of hope. Regression cross lag model was adopted to investigate the relations of college students’hope with two important indicators of mental health (life satisfaction and depression).Results and Conclusion:(1) Snyder’s hope scale had cross-cultural measurement equivalence in Chinese college students and American college students, it showed that the two factors of Snyder hope theory(pathways-thinking and agency-thinking)were universal across cultures. Each of Single factor model, two factor model, two order model and bi-factor model had good fit indices, but the two order model fit the theoretical model best.(2) College students showed a high level of hope, College students in different family economic conditions showed significant differences on hope level, those students in good family economic condition showed higher level of hope than those in bad family economic condition. The correlations between hope and all dimensions of the big five personality were significant. Openness and conscientiousness were the most powerful factors to predict hope and its two factors. (3) The subjective support dimensions of social support could positively predict college students’hope. Self-esteem and self-efficacy played as two significant mediators between social support and hope, but self-efficacy was much more important variable which similarly as an mediator variable.(4) The average developmental trajectories of college students’hope was relatively stable and changed little. The heterogeneity differences of the developmental trajectories was analyzed. It was found the general hope level of students in high or intermediate level hope group was relatively stable,but the general hope level in low level hope group had a significant downward trend as the time changed.(5) Gender and emotional state of college students had significant effect on developmental trajectories of hope. Girls’ hope level had a significant upward trend as the time changed while the boys’hope level had a significant decreasing trend. Positive emotions could positively predict hope development while negative emotions could negatively predict it, and positive emotions had more stronger prediction on hope.(6) The correlation between hope and life satisfaction was significant and positive, but no mutual prediction relations was found. The correlation between hope and depression level was significant an negative.There was significant reciprocal effect between pathways-thinking and depression, and depression level had a one-way effect on agency-thinking.