Evidence for the factorial validity of the Dispositional Hope Scale - Cross-ethnic and cross-gender measurement equivalence

Confirmatory factor analyses were employed to test the factorial validity and structure of the Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS; Snyder et al., 1991). In a large multiethnic sample (n = 1031), a two-factor representation of the DHS fit the data significantly better than a one-factor model. These findings suggest that the DHS is better conceptualized as being composed of Agency and Pathways components and not as a unidimensional representation of general hope. Multigroup analyses revealed that the factor pattern coefficients were invariant across gender and ethnic groups, respectively, thus establishing metric invariance of the DHS. However, item intercepts, item uniqueness terms, the factor variance for the Agency factor, and both the Agency and Pathways latent factor means statistically differed as a function of gender (but not ethnicity). These findings suggest that while the two-factor structure of the DHS is relatively stable and robust, both measurement and substantive differences as a function of gender must be accounted for.