An Investigation of Hope and Context

One of the tenets of community psychology is examining psychological phenomena in context, and our studies explored the relationship between hope and context among individuals in recovery for substance use disorders. Study 1 involved 595 participants who resided in 90 recovery homes. We found that context, as house effects, was salient in residents' perceptions of hope, suggesting that the context of recovery homes-- their configurations and dynamics-- may play a role in an individual's future perspective. Study 2 involved 102 recovering adults. Findings indicated that one's perceived context (i.e., opportunities, choices, & obstacles) was related to not only one's self-reported levels of hope, but one's perception of hope for others. Approximately 50% of an individual's hopefulness was explained by contextual factors, thus suggesting that system level effects are critical to an individual's hopefulness. The finding that context was predictive of hopefulness suggests that a community psychology perspective on feelings of hope is critical, especially for individuals in substance use recovery. Implications regarding the importance of hope and context for ecological research and contextual influences on behavior change are discussed.