Abstract
M.A.
This study investigated the validity of the Children’s Hope Scale (CHS) among a sample of South African adolescents. The aims of this study were to determine the internal consistency, the factor structure and construct validity of the CHS among a group of 1062 adolescents, aged between 13 and 16 years. Internal consistency was established and yielded a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .73. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was implemented to determine the factor structure of the CHS.
After rejecting the null model as well as the one factor model (model 2), a revised model 3 was accepted (χ? = 15.43, p < .001; CFI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.03, 90% CI, .01 to .056). Specifically, item 5 was specified to load on the pathways factor and not on agency. Convergent and discriminant validity was determined by establishing correlation coefficients between the CHS and criterion measures. Hope correlated positively with coping self-efficacy (r = .58), positive affect (r = .48) and psychological well-being (r = .59); and negatively with negative affect (r = -.23). It can be concluded that the CHS is an adequate measure of hope in the current sample used. Future research could consider validating the CHS for other age groups as well as developing translated versions of the CHS for languages appropriate to South Africa.