Hope Research

What is Hope? There are many definitions of hope, and many factors that go into creating a hopeful mindset. At Hopeful Minds, we have defined hope as a vision, fueled by positive feelings and inspired actions. Positive feelings are those feelings that help us to stay hopeful as we work towards our goals. Inspired actions are steps that propel us towards our goals. Both feelings and actions are critical to hope; it is what differentiates hope from a “wish.”

Once we have hope, we can foster our hopeful mindset through passion and purpose, a growth mindset, kindness, gratitude, presence, empathy, wonder, awe, sacredness, respect, collaboration, self-efficacy, creativity, believe, and more. The Hopeful Minds curriculums, which introduce students to the “what,” “why,” and “how” of hope, were designed to introduce students to these important skills, and help them strengthen their own hopeful mindsets.


What kinds of societal returns can we seen for teaching Hope? The impact is  quite broad, and hope has many posive outcomes you may not expect beyond mental health. Let’s look at a review of the studies:

• Examining Hope as a Transdiagnostic Mechanism of Change Across Anxiety Disorders and CBT Treatment Protocols
• The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Hope and Stress
• Developing Hopeful Minds: Can teaching Hope improve well-being and protective factors in children?
• The present study suggested that Hopeful Minds program is feasible in supporting Malaysia children in terms of reducing their depressive symptoms, regulating and controlling their emotion. (Ghazali, S. R.*, Chen, Y. Y., Basco, C., 2021)
• In a study on depression and anxiety and hope in youth, Students who expressed higher hope at the beginning of the study had lower measures of depression and anxiety one and two months later. The reverse was not true, however — symptoms of anxiety and depression had no effect on future levels of hope (Journal of Personality, 2007) This is important, as depression and anxiety do not predict your future levels of Hope, but your levels of Hope do predict your levels of anxiety and depression. Why is this important? Because by strengthening your hope muscle, you can equip yourself to prevent depression and anxiety in the future.
• Using trait and state hope scales, studies explored hope in college student athletes. In Study 1, male and female athletes were higher in trait hope than nonathletes; moreover, hope significantly predicted semester grade averages beyond cumulative grade point average and overall self-worth. In Study 2, with female cross-country athletes, trait hope predicted athletic outcomes; further, weekly state hope tended to predict athletic outcomes beyond dispositional hope, training, and self-esteem, confidence, and mood. In Study 3, with female track athletes, dispositional hope significantly predicted athletic outcomes beyond variance related to athletic abilities and affectivity; moreover, athletes had higher hope than nonathletes (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1997)
• Hope and hopelessness are two distinct but correlated constructs. Hope can act as a resilience factor that buffers the impact of hopelessness on suicidal ideation. Inducing hope in people may be a promising avenue for suicide prevention (PLOS, 2015)
• Hope uniquely predicts objective academic achievement above intelligence, personality, and previous academic achievement (Journal of Research in Personality, 2010)
• Hope, but not optimism, predicts academic performance of law students beyond previous academic achievement (Journal of Research in Personality, 2011)
• Hopeful people have a greater sense that life is meaningful (International Journal of Existential Psychology & Psychotherapy, 2010)
• Hope is a strong predictor of positive emotions, and hope and optimism are distinct from one another (Journal of Positive Psychology, 2009)
• The Role of Hope in Buffering the Impact of Hopelessness on Suicidal Ideation (PLoS One, 2015)
• Hope accounts for 14 percent of productivity in the workplace — more than intelligence, optimism or self-efficacy (Journal of Positive Psychology, 2013)
• The Business Case for Hope (Forbes, 2019)
• Effective leaders understand their followers’ needs: trust,compassion, stability, and hope (Strengths Based Leadership, 2009)
• Self-Efficacy, Optimism, Resilience and Hope in the Workplace are key to productivity, a review of all (Jacobsen, 2013)
• Investing in treatment for depression and anxiety leads to fourfold return (World Bank, 2016)
• School-based substance abuse prevention is generally very cost effective, for example, “Life Skills Training” returned $21 dollars for every dollar spent on the intervention (NASMHPD, 2012)
• Dimensions of hope in adolescence: Relations to academic functioning and well‐being (Crystal Bryce, 2019)

See our latest presentation at the International Child Mental Health Working Group (ICMH), Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston). As you can see, hope plays a key role in so many things in life. So understanding hope as a skill, operationalizing it in communities, and engaging communities in practicing can impact our world beyond measure. Join us in teaching Hope. In strengthening societal hope.  In infusing Hope into each and everything you do, and we do. Share the information with others, get teachers involved, generate funds for hope, ask your workplace to invest, do a cause marketing campaign for hope, and help us increase hope in all populations and all levels. Sign up for our newsletter, and join our social media outlets @ifredorg spreading the message of hope using hashtags #spreadhope #teachhope #hope #hopefulminds.