In the last two decades, with the increase of application of positive psychology, human strengths and the related constructs of positive psychology (such as optimism, subjective well-being, hope etc.) get more attention from researchers, school psychologists and counselors (e.g. Luthans & Jensen, 2002; Snyder, Shorey, Cheavens, Pulvers, Adams III, & Wiklund, 2002; Snyder, Lopez, Shorey, Rand, & Feldman, 2003). The construct of “hope” which introduced into literature by Snyder takes an important place not only in the field of mental health, but also in education (Snyder, et al., 1991; 2002; 2003). Snyder et al. (2002) underline the importance of using hope theory in educational research as a motivational model. Snyder (2002, p. 249) defined the construct of hope as “the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways”. Hope is a cognitive process and includes two major components (pathways and agency) which are interrelated (Snyder, Harris, Anderson, Holleran, Irving, Sigmon, et al., 1991). The academic self-efficacy, the predictor variable of this study, is a specific aspect of general self-efficacy. The construct of self-efficacy developed by Bandura, and also problem solving that is another predictor variable are related constructs with hope. Although hope has some similarities with these constructs, it has some discrepancies (Snyder, 1995; 2002). The present study is considered important because hope is relatively new research topic in Turkey and it needs further understanding and investigation. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the role of academic self-efficacy, problem solving, gender, and age in predicting state and dispositional hope levels of Turkish high school students. It was hypothesized that academic self-efficacy, problem solving, gender, and age will predict state and dispositional hope levels of Turkish high school students.

The sample was consisted of 180 high school students recruited from 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. 119 of the participants were girls (66%) and 61 of the participants were boys (34%). Participants were selected through employing a convenient sampling method. The age range for the participants was 15 to 21 (M=17.27, SD=.845). In this study, a brief demographic information form about gender and age, and four self-report instruments; Dispositional Hope Scale (Snyder, et al., 1991), State Hope Scale (Snyder, Sympson, Ybasco, Borders, Babyak, & Higgins, 1996), Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1981), and Problem Solving Inventory (Heppner & Petersen, 1982) were administered. In order to assess how well academic self-efficacy, problem solving, gender, and age predict state and dispositional hope levels of students, two separate standard multiple regression analyses were conducted. Gender was evaluated as dichotomous variable. All statistical analyses were performed with utilizing SPSS 15.0.

Results indicated that multiple linear regression coefficients were significant for the first model in which state hope was assessed outcome variable (R=.461, =.212, =.194, F(4,175)=11.795, p<.01), and for the second model in which dispositional hope evaluated as outcome variable (R=.441, =.195, =.176, F(4,175)=10.565, p<.01). Also, it was found that academic self-efficacy and problems solving were found to be significant predictors of students’ state and dispositional hope. These results will be discussed in terms of the association of academic self-efficacy and problem solving with hope.