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We examined hope as a potential resiliency factor for the daily strains of raising children with disruptive behavior disorders. In light of the motivational component of hope theory, initiating and sustaining effort toward goals (i.e., agency), we were interested in hope's relation to constructs addressing self-esteem, familial functioning, and stress. Two hundred, fifty-two parents of children with externalizing disorders completed self-report questionnaires. Significant associations were foundamong hope and parental and familial functioning indices (e.g., warm and nurturing parenting styles, cohesive and active family environment, adaptive coping strategies). Considering their conceptual overlap, we tested the unique predictive power of hope and optimistic attributions on indices of psychological functioning. Separate regressions indicated that hope significantly predicted psychological functioning beyond what was accounted for by social desirability, the severity of child symptoms, and optimistic attributions. Hope agency compared to hope pathways (i.e., perceived ability to generate strategies to obtain goals) accounted for the vast amount of variance in regression models. In contrast, optimistic attributions failed to predict any of the variables of interest. Treatment and prevention strategies are suggested with an integrated focus on both the disruptive behaviors of children and parental character traits.
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... One might expect that pairing fathers with positive messages would generate positive emotions in young people. Mothers are often perceived as more emotional than fathers (Eisenberg et al., 1996), expressing less hope and more negativity (Clark et al., 2000;Kashdan et al., 2002;Klimes-Dougan et al., 2007). Hence, one might expect that interplaying mother figures with negative messages would elicit negative emotions in young people more effectively. ...
... In this case, socializing agents like parents may inhibit or foster the expression of emotion (Klimes-Dougan et al., 2007). Although parental role often magnifies children's negative responses (e.g., Garside & Klimes-Dougan, 2002;Muris et al., 1996), parents can also bring hope to children (e.g., Kashdan et al., 2002;Prinsloo, 2006). These findings demonstrate that parental communication and message appeals can be triggering factors for children's responses. ...
... In family studies, fathers are perceived as better hope givers than mothers (e.g., Kashdan et al., 2002;Morgan et al., 2011). A hope message frame, per se, leads to enthusiasm (e.g., Ferrer et al., 2012;Howard, 2006). ...
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Parental communication is still relatively meaningful in Asian families with hierarchical, vertical, and authoritative relationships. Meanwhile, children's pro‐environmental behaviour in emerging Asian nations tends to be passive, leading to a need for intervention from the closest parties, often the parent, whose familial role in green communication has not been examined. This study uses social learning theory to examine the interplay of parent‐like spokespeople and message appeals in affecting young adults' cognitive and emotional responses, which is expected to influence the ad liking and believability of green advertisements and switching intention to green products, such as eco‐friendly straws. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 240 subjects. The results showed that the frame of a father‐like figure conveying a hope appeal generated the greatest enthusiasm and argument quality for young adults. Mother‐like figures speaking a fearful message frame were the best generator for young adults' anger and threat appraisal. Ad liking was significantly impacted only by a mother‐like spokesperson who spoke a fearful appeal mediated by anger and a father‐like spokesperson who delivered a hope appeal mediated by argument quality. Young adults' willingness to switch to eco‐friendly straws was indirectly influenced by the interaction effect of a mother‐like spokesperson and fear appeal type mediated by ad believability.
... First, hope actually implies the absence of full confidence, and second, hope incorporates desire into actions, engaging imagination, thoughts, feelings, and perception in the service of fulfilling the desire. Not surprisingly, there is considerable evidence that hope predicts beneficial psychological functioning where sheer optimism fails to do so (e.g., Kashdan et al., 2002;Rand et al., 2011). ...
... To date, this idea of hope as a mental resource has been demonstrated mostly in contexts of adversity such as illness or crises (e.g., Felder, 2004;Stanton et al., 2002). Even studies of hope in the context of parenting have typically considered it with respect to stress and coping (e.g., hope among parents of children with illnesses or disorders; e.g., Kashdan et al., 2002). Less is known about hope as a resource within relatively normative (though still challenging) parenting situations and circumstances, like early parenthood. ...
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Hope is a mental resource and a robust predictor of well-being, which allows individuals to better cope with hardship. Little is known about dyadic hope – i.e., hope serving as a joint resource within intimate relationships. We examined dyadic hope in a sample of 100 couples in early parenthood, a challenging though common phase in couples’ lives. Three months after becoming parents, both partners completed daily diaries for 3 weeks, reporting their daily hope, stressors, and three types of outcomes: individual, relational, and parental. Using multilevel actor-partner interdependence models, we found that greater hope (both daily and person-level) was positively associated with better actor and partner outcomes of all three kinds. Additionally, hope buffered various daily stressors. Our results show that hope is a personal and shared resource for couples in this pivotal juncture, and thus may constitute a target for future interventions.
... Existing literature has found that hope is positively associated with psychological wellbeing (Gallagher et al., 2021;Kashdan et al., 2002). Hope supports positive outcomes for both physical and mental health (Alarcon et al., 2013;Gallagher & Lopez, 2009) and is inversely correlated with depression (Chang et al., 2013;Mathew et al., 2014). ...
... The fourth is enhancing hope. Hope is seen by some researchers to be positively correlated with parenting skills (Kashdan, Pelham, Lang, Hoza, Jacob, Jennings, et al., 2002). "Connecting an isolated parent with one or two other parents as a strategy to increase involvement at home or school may be a promising avenue for schools that desire greater connections with families" (Sheldon, 2002, p. 313). ...
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... This adaptive coping reinforces their optimism and emotional and financial support from other family members. It is then necessary to note that parents raising children who tend to be oppositional, defiant, and non-compliant, those who can set clear goals, believe that they are obtainable, and persevere despite the obstacles are likely to obtain good outcomes (Kashdan et al., 2002) The negative reaction characterized by worrying due to confusion and unclear understanding of ADHD consequently leads to maladaptive coping. Denial as maladaptive coping is a temporary relief from the burden of thinking too much about their child's condition or catastrophizing about it. ...
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... On the other hand, parental hope, optimism, and positive experiences with other parents may enable parenting skill uptake and lead to improved outcomes. Future studies will benefit from measuring the extent to which hope, optimism, and parent group cohesion predict response to psychosocial treatments for ADHD in adolescence as they do in psychosocial treatment implemented during childhood (Kashdan et al., 2002;Lerner et al., 2011). ...
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