Psychometric Characteristics of a Questionnaire Measuring Hopefulness: An Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

Background: In the third millennium, which is called the information era, despite the technological growth and industrialization, lack of hopefulness is seen in the general population, especially among the youth. Therefore, hope is one of the critical issues that should be promoted among the youth. Objectives: This study was aimed at evaluating a hopefulness questionnaire among the youth. Methods: This cross-sectional study with an exploratory approach was carried out among the Iranian youth population in 2020. All students of Shahed University in Tehran (estimated as 5000 people) were considered the study population, 600 of whom were selected as the study sample by the simple random sampling method. For data collection, a researcher-made questionnaire was utilized. Data analysis was performed by SPSS v. 21 and LISREL v. 8.80. Alpha Cronbach coefficient was used to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire. Results: The results showed the adequate reliability of the hopefulness questionnaire. Also, the findings showed that three latent variables in the questionnaire had significantly larger values than the other factors. Therefore, with three latent factors, the hopefulness questionnaire was significantly saturated. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 33 items of the questionnaire was 0.80. Conclusions: It was found that the questionnaire constructs are useful in predicting hopefulness intention. The scale consisted of three factors that did not completely replicate the factors found in previous studies. The use of this tool is recommended for all age groups.