منشاء امید و رضایت از زندگی: نقش واسطه ای عزت نفس شخصی و عزت نفش رابطه ای

• Different locus-of-hope dimensions have different pathways to life satisfaction.• New evidence that external locus-of-hope dimensions were also associated with life satisfaction.• Personal self-esteem mediated the effect of internal hope on life satisfaction.• Relational self-esteem mediated the effects of internal hope and external-family locus-of-hope on life satisfaction.Research has demonstrated that hope is linked to better psychological well-being; however, little research has been conducted to examine the mechanisms underlying the link between hope and psychological well-being. The current study examined whether two types of self-esteem (personal and relational) would mediate the relationship between four loci-of-hope (internal, family, peers, and spiritual) and life satisfaction among Hong Kong and Macau college students (n = 1008). Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Consistent with the hypotheses, both personal self-esteem and relational self-esteem partially mediated the effects of internal hope on life satisfaction. Moreover, relational self-esteem mediated the effect of external-family locus-of-hope on life satisfaction. Interestingly, a suppressing effect of personal self-esteem on the relationship between external-peers locus-of-hope and life satisfaction was found. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

According to Snyder’s hope theory (2002), hope is the perceived capability to produce pathways to desired goals and to motivate oneself to use those pathways. The cognitive process of hope consists of three core constructs: (a) goals – the mental targets that direct human behavior, (b) pathways – the routes to the desired goals, and (c) agency – the perceived ability to achieve goals through pathways (Rand & Cheavens, 2009). To achieve the goals, individuals can rely on internal or external agents (e.g., family, peers, and spirituality) and generate internal or external pathways (i.e., locus-of-hope) (Bernardo, 2010 and Bernardo, 2014). Regarding internal locus-of-hope, the self is considered as an inner locus to goal attainment. With external loci-of-hope, one would think family members, peers, or a spiritual entity/force have the agency and pathways for goal completion. Because all loci-of-hope share a common thread of positive goal-directed cognitions, they are correlated with each other (Bernardo, 2010 and Bernardo, 2014), but relate to other psychological variables in distinct ways (Bernardo, 2010 and Du and King, 2013).