Open AccessAssessing the Importance of Childhood Context in the Development of Hope and Optimism
Author(s) -
Jason M. Fletcher
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of happiness studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.198
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1573-7780
pISSN - 1389-4978
DOI - 10.1007/s10902-019-00186-8
Subject(s) - optimism , positive psychology , psychology , quality of life research , context (archaeology) , psychoanalysis , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , history , public health , archaeology , nursing
This paper explores the importance of adolescent environments as a key determinant of hope and optimism. Data were taken from the prospective, nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to calculate correlations in hope and optimism among individuals who attended the same secondary school. These correlations generate upper-bound estimates of the influence of adolescent environments and suggest relatively modest contributions, accounting for 1-4% of population variation. In contrast, sibling correlations account for approximately 10% of the variation. Taken together, the results suggest that interventions that shape schools and neighborhoods during adolescence are likely to have relatively small benefits for hope and optimism development.