Hope for Latino immigrant youth: A longitudinal test of Snyder's Children's Hope Scale

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• Author: Hua Lin,Ronald B. Cox,Sumeyra Sahbaz,Isaac J. Washburn,Robert E. Larzelere,Kimberly A. Greder
• Date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12651

RESEARCH

Hope for Latino immigrant youth: A longitudinal test

of Snyder’s Children’s Hope Scale

Hua Lin

1

|Ronald B. Cox Jr

1

|Sumeyra Sahbaz

1

|

Isaac J. Washburn

1

|Robert E. Larzelere

1

|Kimberly A. Greder

2

1

Department of Human Development &

Family Science, Oklahoma State University,

Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States

2

Department of Human Development &

Family Studies and Human Sciences Extension

and Outreach, Iowa State University, Ames,

Iowa, United States

Correspondence

Ronald B. Cox Jr., Department of Human

Development & Family Science, 233 Nancy

Randolph Davis, Oklahoma State University,

Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.

Email: r.cox@okstate.edu

Funding information

The writing of this manuscript was supported

by funding from the U.S. Department of

Agriculture, National Institute of Food and

Agriculture, Children Youth and Families at

Risk Grants (2017-41520-26875 to Dr. Ronald

Cox and 2014-41520-22189 to Dr. Kimberly

Greder), the National Institute on Drug Abuse

(grant R15DA049232 to Dr. Ronald Cox), and

the George Kaiser Family Foundation

(Dr. Ronald Cox).

Abstract

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of Sny-

der’s Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) with first- and second-

generation Latino immigrant youth, using item response

theory, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and

measurement invariance tests.

Background: Stress experienced by youth in 2020 has height-

ened interest in resilience factors such as hope. The CHS is

widely used to measure hope but has not been validated for

longitudinal assessments with immigrant populations.

Methods: Participants were 233 low socioeconomic status

first- and second-generation Latino immigrant youth (50.43%

female, 62% U.S.-born, and 81% of Mexican heritage). Data

were collected at two timepoints spanning 4 weeks.

Results: Rather than the original six-item two-dimensional

scale, our results supported a four-item one-dimensional

scale, with excellent model fit, strong invariance across time,

by gender and generation status, good reliability (α=.81),

and the expected negative association with stress.

Conclusions: The four-item Hope scale is suitable for longi-

tudinal assessments with first- and second-generation Latino

immigrant populations and can be used for examining differ-

ences by gender and generation status in research and prac-

tice to assess youth resilience.

Implications: This study underscores the need for practi-

tioners and researchers to rigorously investigate the psycho-

metric properties ofa measure before its use with diverse

populations.

KEYWORDS

children’s hope scale, confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory,

Latino immigrant youth, psychometrics, validity

Received: 8 October 2020Revised: 11 May 2021Accepted: 12 August 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12651

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:697–718. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 697

In times of stress, hope promotes individual well-being and fosters the supportive relationships

conducive to family cohesion and the positive functioning required for the development of resil-

ience in children (Boyacı& Özhan, 2018; Connelly Jr., 2015; Feldman et al., 2018; Masten &

Monn, 2015). As such, hope plays an indirect role in how immigrant families adapt to changes

and reduce the negative effects of discrimination, nationalism, and language difficulties through

the ethnic-racial socialization of their young (Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020). In addition to the

indirect influence of the family, research shows that for youth hope is linearly associated with

sundry positive outcomes, such as positive social interactions, self-esteem, optimism, self-worth,

academic achievement, problem-solving skills, coping strategies, and college graduation rates

(Chang, 1998; Gallagher et al., 2016; Khurana et al., 2015; Marques et al., 2009; Snyder

et al., 1991,1997). Hope also exerts a powerful protective effect against negative life events and

circumstances that lead to depression, substance use, risky sexual behaviors, and other negative

outcomes (Stark & Boswell, 2000; Stoddard et al., 2011; Twyford et al., 2014). This suggests

that the construct of hope may be an especially salient asset for Latino immigrant youth who

must cope with and overcome obstacles such as poverty, racism, discrimination, nativism, and

acculturation-based stressors as they develop a positive bicultural identity at the intersection of

their parents’culture and U.S. culture (e.g., Berry et al., 2006; Phinney, 2003). For instance,

second-generation immigrant youth may have to manage hurdles idiosyncratic to being the chil-

dren of immigrants such as shared language erosion (Cox Jr. et al., 2021) and transgenerational

trauma (Phipps & Degges-White, 2014), both of which may affect parental ability to transfer

their resilience to their offspring. This may help explain important variations by acculturation

that document declines in behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, safe sexual practices, and sui-

cide attempts from first-generation youth to second- and third-generation youth (Peña

et al., 2008; Potochnick & Perreira, 2010). Because many high-risk behaviors that could be

affected by hope also vary by gender (Guilamo-Ramos et al., 2009; Langhinrichsen-Rohling

et al., 2009; Vaughan et al., 2018) among Latino adolescents over time, it is important to test

for measurement invariance by acculturation, gender, and time.

Nevertheless, only one study has assessed the psychometric properties of the Children’s

Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder, 1997) for use with Latino youth (i.e., Edwards et al., 2007). Impor-

tantly, these authors only assessed Mexican American, English-speaking youth and did not test

for invariance by time or generation status, which limits confidence of its adequacy for immi-

grant populations or longitudinal assessments. To address these gaps, the current study system-

atically tested the factor structure, reliability, measurement invariance, and construct validity of

Snyder’s CHS on a sample of 233 first-generation (i.e., foreign-born) and second-generation

(U.S. born to at least one foreign-born parent) Latino immigrant seventh-graders.

SNYDER’S HOPE THEORY

Historically, hope has referred to a belief that good things will happen in the future (Snyder

et al., 1991). More recently, however, more comprehensive and standardized goal-directed theo-

ries of hope have gained influence in the literature. Primary among them is Snyder’s cognitive,

multidimensional theory of hope, which integrates three components of positive expectancies:

pathways, agency, and goals (Snyder, 2000). Pathways refers to the ability to generate plausible

paths to obtain a desired goal. Having the capacity to produce multiple pathways is key to over-

coming barriers as they arise. Agency refers to the motivation to accomplish a goal using identi-

fied pathways and incorporates a sense of efficacy, determination, and energy. Goals, whether

short or long term, general or specific, are integrated within both pathways and agency and

must be of sufficient importance to warrant sustained conscious thought. Thus, according to

Snyder et al. (1991), hope is “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively

derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet

698 FAMILY RELATIONS