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Locus of Hope: External Hope in Parents/Guardians as an Antecedent of Adolescents’ Internal Hope and Life Satisfaction

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Abstract

While hope has been frequently referenced as a protective factor associated with resilience, limited research exists examining hope’s origins. To expand the research base on the origins of hope among adolescents, we conducted 2 studies to test Bernardo’s locus of hope theory, along with Snyder’s theory that hope originates from attentive caregivers. Two cross sectional studies were performed with 2 independent samples collected from adolescents residing in the South Central United States (Study 1: N′ = 556; Study 2: N′ = 578). Covariance based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test an a priori model of external locus of hope in parents/guardians as an antecedent of life satisfaction mediated by children’s internal hope. The results of both studies indicate that the proposed theoretical model provided good fit to the observed data. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results, particularly the potential importance of parenting approaches that involve parents/guardians acting as external agents promoting their adolescents’ goals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, 4502 East 41st St, Tulsa, OK, 74135, USA

    Ricky T. Munoz, Kathleen A. Quinton & Chan M. Hellman

  2. Hope Research Center, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, 4502 East 41st St, Tulsa, OK, 74135, USA

    Ricky T. Munoz & Chan M. Hellman

  3. Human Relations, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, 4502 East 41st St, Tulsa, OK, 74135, USA

    Jody A. Worley

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  1. Ricky T. Munoz
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  4. Chan M. Hellman
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Correspondence to Ricky T. Munoz.

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Munoz, R.T., Quinton, K.A., Worley, J.A. et al. Locus of Hope: External Hope in Parents/Guardians as an Antecedent of Adolescents’ Internal Hope and Life Satisfaction. Child Ind Res 12, 1107–1124 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-018-9566-z

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