A New Hope: Finding the Balance Between School Factors and Adolescent Well-Being

Elizabeth Mae Purser

doi:10.7273/000005332

Hope, or the ability to control one’s own goals and the ways in which one considers and plans to reach those goals, is an important aspect of adolescent development. Research has found higher levels of hope are associated with positive outcomes (e.g., life satisfaction) and lower levels with negative outcomes (e.g., internalizing, externalizing). However, little research has focused on hope within adolescence and specifically how environmental factors, such as schools, serve to promote or thwart hope, and how this interacts with one’s well-being. The current study evaluated the association between adolescent hope, school risk and protective factors, and adolescent depression and anxiety to better understand how school contexts is related to adolescent hope and well-being. We hypothesize that students with fewer school risk factors and greater protective factors will have higher levels of hope.Data are from 10th graders who took the 2018 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey. Measures include four items from the Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1997), indicators of school risk (e.g., school safety) or protection (e.g., positive adult interactions), three questions on depression and anxiety, and demographics. Regression and moderation analyses were used to determine the association between adolescent hope, school risk and protective factors, and well-being, while controlling for student school, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Results revealed that school risk factors were significantly associated with lower hope and school protective factors were significantly associated with higher hope. Further, high hope was associated with both lower experiences of depression and anxiety. Altogether, these results point to the importance of the school environment for adolescent hope and well-being. Findings align with prior research on community and peer influences on adolescent development and extend our understanding to the school context. Hope may be an important mechanism for school-level intervention and fostering well-being. Future research should examine how such school factors are associated with long-term outcomes for adolescents, such as health and goal achievements.

A New Hope: Finding the Balance Between School Factors and Adolescent Well-Being

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