Norms, reliability, and item analysis of the hopelessness scale in general psychiatric, forensic psychiatric, and college populations

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Abstract
Administered the Hopelessness Scale to 99 criminal psychiatric inpatients, 118 general psychiatric inpatients, and 197 upper-level college students. Normative data were reported for each group. Both of the psychiatric groups endorsed significantly more items in the hopeless direction than did the college student sample. The scale was found to be more reliable with the psychiatric patients than with the college students. This difference in reliability may reflect the restriction of range of hopelessness scores among college students. An item analysis of the Hopelessness Scale for each of the three groups was presented. These data suggest that three items (4, 5, 13) were not measuring hopelessness as reflected in the other items. Suggestions for further research with the Hopelessness Scale to clarify the components of hopelessness in nonpsychiatric populations were presented.