Acculturation of Migrant Latinos in a Positive Psychology Framework

This article features a positive psychology perspective on migration, using hope theory as a conceptual framework to explain life satisfaction of Hispanic migrants in the United States. The cross-sectional study considers the association of acculturation and social support on wellbeing while accounting for the demographic and personal characteristics of Latino migrants ( N = 169) in California and Florida. The final regression model (with the demographic variables of gender, health, realized expectations, the main effect of country, and the interaction variable of realized expectations by country), resulted in significant associations between life satisfaction and the variables of gender and health status. The study demonstrates that expectations (among other factors) significantly predict life satisfaction of Hispanic migrants, which implies that contextualizing migration experience in the positive light (rather than looking at stressors) may impact their quality of life.

Students' Perspectives on Future Employment: A Qualitative Study on Indonesian Higher Education Institutions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to determine how undergraduate students at Indonesian higher education institutions think about future jobs associated with aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in precariat work. It involved twenty students from two public universities located in Aceh, Indonesia. Online in-depth interviews were used as the data collection methods. Additionally, Snyder’s hope theory was utilised as a theoretical framework for this qualitative study. The theory would be useful in understanding the students’ insights related to the precarity of the future job, especially in the aspect of goals, pathway, and agency. The study found that despite having a lack of visualisation towards the future, the undergraduate students generally believed that COVID-19 and precarious working arrangements were serious challenges towards future employment. Academic achievements such as high grades might not be sufficient unless supplemented by substantial organisational skills, vast networking, and a resilient entrepreneurial mentality. This study also underlined the vital role of higher education institutions in strategically preparing their students to face the unpredictability and precariousness of the future job marketplace.

The Religious Meaning System and Resilience in Spouse Caregivers of Cancer Patients: A Moderated Mediation Model of Hope and Affect

The character of the relationship between religiosity and resilience depends to a large extent on mediation and moderation mechanisms which rely on cognitive and emotional processes. Research conducted within hope theory and the broaden and build theory indicates that hope and affect can mediate and moderate this relationship. The present study explored whether the relationship of the religious meaning system with resilience in spouse caregivers of cancer patients can be mediated by hope and simultaneously moderated by positive and negative affect. A total of 241 spouse caregivers completed a set of questionnaires. The results revealed that hope mediated the relationship between the religious meaning system and resilience. Furthermore, positive affect but not negative affect moderated the indirect effect of the religious meaning system to resilience through hope.

Supporting the School-to-Work Transition for Young Adults Formerly in Care

This chapter on supporting the school-to-work transition for young adults formerly in care provides hope-informed interventions for increasing resilience for youth who have aged out of government care. Because these youth face unique challenges, success in the school-to-work transition can constitute a resilient outcome. This chapter discusses the particular barriers faced by young adults formerly in care as well as summarizing the literature on how helping professionals can best intervene. Specifically, the authors look at hope theory and how it can provide a practical and effective framework for intervening in the face of uncertain outcomes to promote resilience and flourishing. They then outline specific interventions as informed by research and best practice.

Pathways to connection: An intensive longitudinal examination of state and dispositional hope, day quality, and everyday interpersonal interaction

Building on hope theory, this study demonstrates that state and trait hope are associated with daily interpersonal experiences. Multilevel modeling of daily diary data ( N = 127 adults) indicated that state hope—composed of the dual factors of pathways (i.e., the ability to devise routes toward goals) and agency (i.e., motivation to pursue devised routes)—was negatively associated with amount of daily interpersonal conflict, positively associated with constructive conflict management when conflict occurred, and negatively associated with daily challenges in maintaining relationships. These relationships were found largely at the within-person level. Further, and consistent with central tenets of hope theory, moderated multilevel models showed that within-person state pathways and agency thinking were more strongly associated with day quality on days when individuals experienced higher-than-usual levels of relational maintenance challenges. Finally, in an extension of hope theory, multilevel models showed that dispositional pathways and between-person state agency were positively linked to momentary feelings of connection as captured by experience sampling over a 7-day period. Overall, the findings contribute to the continued expansion of hope theory into the study of social and personal relationships.

TEACHING PRACTICES: INTEGRATING POSITIVE THINKING IN PICTURE BOOK CREATION FOR ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN

The present study created picture books featuring elements of hope theory and conducted a practical teaching program to explore the application of hopeful thinking picture books for economically disadvantaged children, specifically, to understand the teachers’ teaching practices of picture book creation. On the basis of hope theory, the current study employed economic disadvantage as the creative background for designing picture books that incorporate elements of hopeful thinking and developed a teaching plan based on the picture books. The results indicated that the picture books had a solid theoretical foundation of hope, and were relevant to preschool children’s real experiences and development. Through teachers’ storytelling and discussion of the story content, children could express ideas based on their own experiences, set specific goals, and devised feasible methods for handling adversity to achieve goals. Therefore, the picture books were considered suitable for classroom teaching. In addition, expert teachers serving as coaches conducted classroom observations and teaching evaluations to explore how effectively positive thinking was integrated into the picture books and teaching activities, and to assess the guidance of children in using positive thinking strategies during story discussion. Through professional assessment, feedback, and teacher self-reflection, hope theory can be effectively applied for picture book creation. The picture book The Piggy’s Home created in this study can help teachers guide economically disadvantaged children in thinking positively, and teachers can refine the guidance process. Keywords: case study, economically disadvantaged children, hope theory, picture books, preschool children