Hope for Latino immigrant youth: A longitudinal test of Snyder's Children's Hope Scale

Objective To examine the psychometric properties of Snyder's Children's Hope Scale (CHS) with first- and second-generation Latino immigrant youth, using item response theory, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance tests. Background Stress experienced by youth in 2020 has heightened interest in resilience factors such as hope. The CHS is widely used to measure hope but has not been validated for longitudinal assessments with immigrant populations. Methods Participants were 233 low socioeconomic status first- and second-generation Latino immigrant youth (50.43% female, 62% U.S.-born, and 81% of Mexican heritage). Data were collected at two timepoints spanning 4 weeks. Results Rather than the original six-item two-dimensional scale, our results supported a four-item one-dimensional scale, with excellent model fit, strong invariance across time, by gender and generation status, good reliability (alpha = .81), and the expected negative association with stress. Conclusions The four-item Hope scale is suitable for longitudinal assessments with first- and second-generation Latino immigrant populations and can be used for examining differences by gender and generation status in research and practice to assess youth resilience. Implications This study underscores the need for practitioners and researchers to rigorously investigate the psychometric properties of a measure before its use with diverse populations.