Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 15, 2025

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
Published on: January 17, 2025
Children's Hope Scale: factor structure and norms for Australian children aged 8-18 years
Sophie Richter1, Jillian Dorrian1, Peter Wicking2
1Justice and Society, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
Objective:
The Children's Hope Scale (CHS) is a widely used six-item instrument for assessing hope in children. The CHS is thought to contain two dimensions-agency thinking (ability to initiate and sustain action towards goals) and pathways thinking (capacity to find a means to carry out goals)-but there is debate whether the scale is unidimensional rather than bidimensional and the factor structure has yet to be established in Australian children.
Method:
N = 171,052 Australian students (8-18 years of age; 0.3% gender diverse, 48.4% male and 51.3% females) completed the CHS as part of a larger survey examining resilience. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, and internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's alpha.
Results:
Bifactor modelling indicated a single-factor structure for the CHS, and the scale demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .86) and was sensitive to age and gender differences.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the CHS is unidimensional and supports its use for the measurement of hope in children and adolescents aged 8-18 years of age.
Related Concept Videos
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Applications of Normal Distribution
The heights of 15 to 18-year-old males from Chile from 1984 to 1985 followed a normal distribution. The mean height is 172.36...
Variation: Normal Distribution, Range, and Standard Deviation
Erikson's Theory on Socioemotional Development during Childhood
The first four of Erikson's eight...
z Scores and Area Under the Curve
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

