A study of the comprehensive state hope scale in Italian culture

Hope is a vital human resource. From antiquity to the present, scientists and poets alike have viewed hope as a necessity for navigating the vicissitudes of life. In modern psychological science, there is increasing empirical evidence that positive emotions such as hope can have a direct impact on physical and psychological well-being, from increasing stress tolerance and performance in work and academic settings to altering health habits and even immune functioning. In the present study, we translated a comprehensive, multidimensional measure of hope into Italian, and we assessed the psychometric parameters of this version. Our sample included 1,280 Italian adults (males = 553, females = 727), ages 18 to 77. In addition to the Comprehensive State Hope Scale (CHS-S; Scioli, Ricci, Nyugen, & Scioli, 2011), participants received two goal-oriented measures of hope, a measure of optimism, and a generalized self-efficacy scale. The Italian translated CHS-S demonstrated strong reliability and significant, positive correlations with (goal-focused) hope, optimism, and self-efficacy as well as a significant, negative correlation with pessimism. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses partially replicated the original U.S.-derived factor structure but also suggested some potentially important cultural differences in the social construction of hope in Italy versus the United States.