Using Hope to Improve Services for Disadvantaged Youth

Background and Purpose: There is a great need for the field of social work’s understanding of hope to be informed by the experiences of disadvantaged African-American youths who often experience exclusion from social work services and do not contribute to knowledge development.  There has been little previous research that looked at hope from the perspective of African American youths and so this research fills that gap. This study contributes original, important conceptualizations of hope with valuable implications for social work services among African American youths, an underserved population. This study addressed three research questions: How do African American youths score on a standardized scale of hope? How do the youths describe hope?; How do the youths use relationships to develop and maintain hope?

Methods: Grounded in Snyder’s theory of hope, this participatory action study used a convergent design, qualitative content analysis and enlisted a systematic non-probability sample of 48 African-American high school students (ages 14-18, 60% female) who were participating in an after school program.  Participants completed in-depth individual interviews, Snyder’s Children’s Hope Scale, and participated in a focus group. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using ATLAS.ti for emerging themes across interviews. The scale was scored and entered into SPSS and descriptive statistics were run.

Results: Analysis of the standardized scale found African American youths had above average levels of hope.  The qualitative results also provide evidence that African American youths describe hope in a way that is consistent with Snyder’s theory, an action-based, goal-oriented understanding of hope.

An original aspect of hope that came out of the interviews was that it was self-reflective because the youths developed hope from supportive relationships but also from reflections upon their own goal-directed activities. They dealt with obstacles by continuing trying, staying on track, and persevering towards goals. They reflected on their ability to make good choices that allow them to move towards goal achievement. Their hope allowed them to feel empowered to make the choices that would assist them in achieving their goals.

Youth developed hope through interactions with others (specifically through relationships that provide caring, support, encouragement, and compassion). Results also revealed that these supportive relationships are particularly helpful to sustain hope and achieve their goals when they feel discouraged.  This advances Snyder’s theory of hope because, for these youth, developing hope in infancy (as in Snyder’s theory) is not enough when living in their environment.

Conclusions and Implications: The results highlight the importance of supportive social services, including after school programming, to help African-American youths develop and maintain hope. The youths said services increased their hope through relationships with service providers and by teaching them new skills to achieve their goals. Social work services can provide youth with a supportive, caring, and empathic relationship with an adult and also teach them skills to help them set and achieve goals. These findings highlight the importance of interventions that can develop and sustain hope in disadvantaged youths, and support efforts to respect and empower the youths’ self-expression of their strengths.