Predicting Hope Levels of High School Students: The Role of Academic Self-Efficacy and Problem Solving

Abstract

The current study presented how well academic self-efficacy, problem solving, gender, and age predict dispositional and state hope levels of high school students in Turkey. The participants were consisted of 392 high school students. Of the participants, 230 (58.7%) were girls and 162 (41.3%) were boys. Questionnaire measures of dispositional and state hope, academic self-efficacy, and problem solving were administered to the participants. Two multiple linear regression analyses were performed to examine to what extent the independent variables predict dispositional and state hope levels of participants. The results indicated that the predictors significantly accounted for 22% of the variance of dispositional hope, 25% of the variance of state hope. In both multiple linear regression models, academic self-efficacy and problem solving were significant predictors of students’ dispositional and state hope scores. Higher hope scores were significantly associated with higher academic self-efficacy beliefs and better problem solving skills. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature with some implications for school counselors and educators.