Hope and its relation with self-esteem among a sample of Lebanese university students

Abstract

This study examines the relation between hope and self-esteem among a sample of Lebanese university students. Hope is one of the important positive variables, and it plays a key role in achieving human adaptation, health, learning and happiness. It can be defined as a positive cognitive feature that leads to motivation, activity, and achievement of goals. As for self-esteem, it is a self-assessment criterion that includes cognitive assessments of self-worth and the emotional experiences associated with these assessments. To achieve the objectives of the study, the Adult Hope Scale, developed by Snyder (1991) and the Self-esteem scale, developed by Rosenberg (1989), both translated into Arabic by Abdel-Khalek (2004) and (2007) respectively, were administered to a sample that consisted of 382 Lebanese university students, of which there were 86 males and 296 females, of age ranging from 18 to 25. Means and SD, t-test to calculate the differences between means, as well Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used in the interpretation of the results. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive significant correlation between hope and self-esteem, and there are no significant differences in hope and self-esteem between male and female university students. The findings were interpreted in the light of previous studies and the social circumstances of the sample in Lebanon.