Hope in Low‐Income Families—A Study of Family Hardiness in Singapore

• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Daniel Wen,Esther C. L. Goh,Chin‐ying Hsu
• Date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12581

D W, E C. L. G,  C- HNational University of Singapore

Hope in Low-Income Families—A Study of Family

Hardiness in Singapore

Objective: To investigate whether family

hardiness mediates the relationship between

economic hardship and hope of mothers and

children from low-income families.

Background: Economic hardship has been

found to be associated with lower hope in

adults. The ABC-X model suggests that the

resources available could be a mediator of this

relationship. However, there is a lack of studies

investigating family-level hardiness as a poten-

tial mediator of this relationship in low-income

families.

Method: Mother–child dyads (N=512) from

low-income families in Singapore were sur-

veyed. Simple mediation was conducted to

investigate family hardiness as a mediator

between economic hardship and hope of moth-

ers and children. Signicant simple mediation

results were followed up with parallel media-

tion, with family commitment, challenge, and

control as mediators.

Results: Family challenge accounted for the

mediation effect in mothers, whereasglobal fam-

ily hardiness accounted for the mediation effect

observed in children.

Conclusion: The inability of low-income fam-

ilies to adapt and reorganize their family

system in response to their economic situation

Department of Social Work, AS3 Level 4, 3 Arts Link,

National University of Singapore (swkegcl@nus.edu.sg).

[Correction added on 18 October 2021, after rst online

publication: ORCID ID included for 2nd author.]

Key Words: economic hardship, family hardiness, hope,

low-income families, mothers and children.

could account for lowered hope in mothers.

Children’s hope is affected by economic

hardship through global family hardiness, pos-

sibly due to undifferentiated perception of the

construct.

Implications: Interventions that build up family

hardiness are recommended to practitioners.

A sense of hope is an essential quality for

those facing adversity. It provides people with

a means to envision the future and the strength

to deal with the difculty of the challenges

faced in the present (Boddy et al., 2018). Hope

has shown to help individuals to cope, moti-

vate them to take action to improve their situ-

ation and enable them to endure considerable

hardship and difculties (Bishop & Willis,2014;

Mancini et al., 2013; McLean, 2011; Schwartz

& Hadar, 2007). This is especially important

for individuals from low-income families, given

the challenges brought about by their nan-

cial situation. Hopefulness refers to a cognitive

mindset that is based on a sense of successful

agency (goal-directed determination) and path-

ways (planning of ways to meet goals; Sny-

der et al., 1991). A hopeful person would not

only perceive the paths to reach their goals but

also would have the motivation to attain those

goals. Hopefulness has been found to be posi-

tively related to positive psychological attributes

such as optimism, self-efcacy, and self-esteem

(Snyder, 2002), and negatively associated with

mental health problems, such as depression, anx-

iety, and stress (Frankham et al., 2019; Ritschel

& Sheppard, 2018).

Family Relations 71 (April 2022): 513–525513

DOI:10.1111/fare.12581