Magnano, P., Di Nuovo, S., Scioli, A., & Di Corrado, D.
A study of the Comprehensive State Hope Scale in Italian culture
Hope is a vital human resource. From antiquity to the present, scientists and poets alike have viewed hope as a necessity for navigating the vicissitudes of life. In modern psychological science, there is increasing empirical evidence that positive emotions such as hope can have a direct impact on physical and psychological well-being, from increasing stress tolerance and performance in work and academic settings to altering health habits and even immune functioning. In the present study, we translated a comprehensive, multidimensional measure of hope into Italian, and we assessed the psychometric parameters of this version. Our sample included 1,280 Italian adults (males = 553, females = 727), ages 18 to 77. In addition to the Comprehensive State Hope Scale (CHS–S; Scioli, Ricci, Nyugen, & Scioli, 2011), participants received two goal-oriented measures of hope, a measure of optimism, and a generalized self-efficacy scale. The Italian translated CHS–S demonstrated strong reliability and significant, positive correlations with (goal-focused) hope, optimism, and self-efficacy as well as a significant, negative correlation with pessimism. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses partially replicated the original U.S.-derived factor structure but also suggested some potentially important cultural differences in the social construction of hope in Italy versus the United States.
Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 2019, Vol. 26, pp. 287-304, DOI: 10.4473/TPM26.2.8
