Validity and reliability of the Polish version of the Short Hopelessness Scale

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Short Hopelessness Scale in an undergraduate student sample. The scale was originally developed as a brief measure of hopelessness for large scale epidemiological surveys and is based on two commonly used measures of hopelessness. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE A total of 4098 students from different Polish universities took part in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the model fit. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to investigate the relationship between hopelessness scale and criterion variables. RESULTS Due to the lack of fit of the initial congeneric, unidimensional model, the lowest loading item was removed. and a tau-equivalent model with three items was tested. The tau-equivalent model showed a good fit to the data. The scale had adequate reliability. Hopelessness was positively related to anxiety, depression, and stress and negatively related to the quality of life, health, and self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS The study provides evidence of good psychometric properties in terms of factorial structure, reliability and criterion validity of the shortened 3-item Polish version of a hopelessness scale. Future studies should investigate its predictive value, especially in terms of suicidal ideation and behaviour, as well as other health outcomes.