hope and life satisfaction among underprivileged children in hong kong: the mediating role of...

A R T I C L E

HOPE AND LIFE SATISFACTIONAMONG UNDERPRIVILEGEDCHILDREN IN HONG KONG: THEMEDIATING ROLE OF PERCEIVEDCOMMUNITY SUPPORTEddie C. W. Ng, Charles C. Chan, and Man Kin LaiThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Poverty is a long-standing problem in developing and developed countriesalike. It not only affects people’s health and well-being but may also createthe social burden if not addressed appropriately. The present study of150 children (aged 7–12 years) examines how the disadvantagedchildren’s personal attribute interacts with the environment in developingtheir well-being. Structural equation modeling provides evidence to ourunderstanding of children who grow up in poverty. Not only are bothhopeful thinking and perceived community support predictive of thechildren’s satisfaction with life, but the perceived community support alsoplays a critical mediating role in the influence of hope on life satisfaction.This finding matches resilience literature, that to overcome great odds andto achieve well-being, factors both within the individual and externalsources of support, are also important in interactional ways. It alsohighlights the critical role of availability of community resources andsupport. C© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study was funded by the Salvation Army Social Services Department, Hong Kong and Macau Command(SA). We gratefully acknowledge the responsible staffs of SA and the five district centres in collecting the dataand providing information for this study. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for theircomments.Please address correspondence to: Eddie, C. W. Ng, Department of Applied Social Science, The Hong KongPolytechnic University. E-mail: [email protected]

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 42, No. 3, 352–364 (2014)Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcop).C© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21614

Perceived Community Support � 353

INTRODUCTION

Poverty was shown to seriously affect people’s health and well-being, as well as re-sult in poor investment in children and young people from these families, whichwill eventually affect their productivity in later stages. This group of disadvantagedpopulation will, at the end, be a heavy social burden to the society (Heckman,2006).

In the literature of poverty, the subculture of poverty is transmitted from generationto the next generation (Lewis, 1959). That is also the reason why Moore (2001) arguedthat intergenerationally transmitted poverty is the “tightest possible definition of chronicpoverty” (p. 4). To mitigate the negative influence on the behaviors and attitudes thatperpetuated their inability to escape the poverty cycle, increasing the internal and externalresources of the children is the key to resilience (Masten, 2001). Recently, a commonunderstanding is that the effect of poverty is mediated by proximal contexts in whichchildren are embedded. Family, schools, peer group, and neighborhoods are found tohave both a direct and an indirect effect in mediating the developmental impact of povertyon child development (Huston & Bentley, 2010).

Another issue concerning the poverty researchers is the interaction between personsand environments and the underlying mechanism in which poverty affects children’sdevelopment. Drawing on the limited empirical research available at that time, Whit-taker, Schinke, and Gilchrist (1986) argue that for the service programs for children,youth, and family to be effective, the ecological paradigm–the dual emphasis on bothproviding social support and improving personal competence–has to be adopted. Forexample, Polansky and Gaudin (1983) indicated that if one could improve parentingbehaviors more in line with community norm, then the intervention would then be moreeffective.

In the area of residential youth care, Whittaker and Pecora’s (1984) study appearedto suggest that youths with stronger postinstitutional community support could keep theirtreatment gains longer than those who lack the support. Nevertheless, as Whittaker andPecora (1984) noted, more studies examining the “persons in the environment” need tobe conducted. Recently, Lipschitz-Elhawi and Itzhaky (2005) explored the relationshipbetween self-esteem and sense of mastery (internal resources), social support (externalresources), and the adjustment of adolescent in a residential treatment center in Israel.They found that self-esteem was significantly associated with academic adjustment and asense of mastery with social and personal adjustment.

With respect to external resources, family support was significantly associated withboth academic and personal adjustment. Thus, the findings appear to suggest that dif-ferent resources will play a different role in relation to different adjustment measures.Fleeson (2004) also argued that we had better put the person-situation debate to an endas evidence for the both sides also existed. While the situation and environment argumentsupport and make sense of the variability of individuals, the person and trait approachwell predicts and describes people’s general pattern of behavior over long periods oftime. As Fleeson and Noftle (2009) argued, what is needed is the integration of thesetwo approaches in the same research paradigm. Thus, further understanding of how theunderprivileged children’s personal attributes interact with the environment in devel-oping their well-being is imperative. Nevertheless, empirical study taking the ecologicalperspective, particularly in Chinese’s context, is lacking.

Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop

354 � Journal of Community Psychology, April 2014

HOPE AND LIFE SATISFACTION

With respect to internal resources, hope is an emerging idea appealing to scientificinquiry, particularly in public health (Coughlin, 2006) and positive psychology research(Snyder & Lopez, 2002). Hope is not only considered as a source of resilience (Werner,1995, Ong, Edwards, & Bergeman, 2006) but also found to be positively associated withlife satisfaction and well-being (Marques, Pais-Ribeiro, & Lopez, 2009). Nevertheless, theway hope can lead to a positive outcome is not clearly known. Two possible pathways weresuggested. According to Snyder (2000), hope is a positive motivational state that is “basedon a reciprocally-derived sense of successful agency (goal-directed determination) andpathways (planning to meet a goal)” (p. 8). Thus, hope is goal-related thinking motivatedby one’s personal agency and envisioned pathways available to achieve goals. In otherwords, people with hope are not only more determined but also motivated to find waysto achieve their goal. As a result, hope can provide individuals with stronger enthusiasmtoward the life challenge, finally leading to a higher level of life satisfaction.

Alternatively, hope may prevent people from feeling despair (Snyder, 2002) andsubsequent self-harmful behavior. For example, Borowsky, Ireland, and Resnick’s (2009)research demonstrated that adolescents without hope toward the future (demonstratedby their expectation of dying prematurely before 35 years of age) are more likely to engagein risky behaviors. They suggest that people without hope seem to take their lives casuallyrather than seriously. In contrast, hope can protect people from risk and harm, resultingin higher level of life satisfaction. Certainly, more research investigating the connectionis required.

PERCEIVED COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND LIFE SATISFACTION

With respect to the external resources, community could be understood as one of thesekinds of resources and supports. Even though community context has long been positedby the community psychology literature as critical to individuals, it has only recently beenacknowledged to also be critical to the development and well-being of children (Evans,2004; Huston & Bentley, 2010; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). For example, Evans (2004)demonstrated how the low-income neighborhood (disadvantaged physical environmentof poor children), normally with less social capital and social ties (poor psychosocialenvironment), can contribute to childhood poverty.

This understanding also highlights the relatedness between the external resourcesand perceived support available in the society. Literature on social support suggested thatwhile social support could be understood objectively (received support) and subjectively(perceived support), the perceived support is more powerful than received support inpredicting adjustment to stressful life events (Wethington & Kessler, 1986).

Likewise, we could also understand the external community resources from the sub-jective point of view. Sarason (1974) proposed the idea of the psychological sense ofcommunity and argues that the individual’s feeling of being a part of a larger structureis conducive to one’s well-being. McMillan and Chavis (1986) later elaborated the ideaand proposed that sense of community (SOC) is defined by four elements (membership,influence, integration, and fulfillment) that together form a sense of belonging, mutualcare, and shared identity. Recently, Herrero and Gracia’s (2007) proposed the idea ofperceived community support, which could be defined by community integration, com-munity participation, and use of community organization. In other words, the more a



person is integrated and participated in the community and the more frequent use of thecommunity organization, the higher level a person feels being supported.

While SOC touches more on the subjective sense of belonging to a community, per-ceived community support additionally taps the participation and involvement in com-munity activities and the utilization of community organizations. Despite the difference,these conceptualizations indicate that the community could be understood as a sourceof resources and support (Nowell & Boyd, 2010) and both concepts depend on humansubjective perception.

With regard to the effects of SOC, it was found to be associated with well-beingindicators, including life satisfaction (Prezza, Amici, Roberti, & Tedeschi, 2001), subjectivewell-being (Davidson & Cotter, 1991), psychological well-being (Obst & Tham, 2009),lower level of depression (Herrero & Gracia, 2007; Obst & Tham, 2009), and loneliness(Pretty, Andrewes, & Collett, 1994). Nevertheless, study about their relationship in theChinese context, particularly in the underprivileged population, is still in shortage.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED COMMUNITY SUPPORT

While feeling hopeful about the future is critical to developing life satisfaction as men-tioned, this kind of positive outlook toward life is not developed in a vacuum. Instead,it is developed in a web of relationship and supportive environment. Snyder (2002) alsoargued that attachment to the caregiver is essential for developing hope and learninggoal-directed thoughts (especially during the infant to toddler stage), because havingcaregivers who are sensitive to one’s need not only helps children develop a sense ofcontrol, but also the caring adults helps to model how to find ways to solve the problemat hand.

Likewise, living in a community feeling sense of support is also important for chil-dren living in the impoverished background to develop hopeful thoughts and future lifesatisfaction, because the availability of resource and support in the community allow thechildren to achieve their goal and let the children perceive themselves as having somesense of control. On the contrary, the inadequate support in the community may deprivethe underprivileged children of the opportunity to fulfill their wishes or to achieve theirgoals, even if they are highly motivated.

Recently, there have been a few studies examining the relationship between hope,well-being indicators, and the community in which people are embedded. For example,Bush (2011) showed that hope and school connectedness was independently and in com-bination predictive of life satisfaction. You, Furlong, Felix, Sharkey, and Tanigawa (2008)further illustrate the role of school connectedness in mediating the relationship betweenstudents’ sense of hope and life satisfaction for students. More studies on understandingthese relationships are needed.

This study sought to assess the extent that perceived community support and hopepredict life satisfaction in Chinese’s context. In addition, we would also like to examinethe mediating role of perceived community support in the relation between hope andlife satisfaction. The two main hypotheses investigated in this study were as follows:

� Having a higher level of hope and a stronger sense of community support wouldbe associated with higher level of life satisfaction.

� The influence of hope on life satisfaction would be, partially or wholly, mediatedby a sense of community support.



METHOD

Data were drawn from the MnM project, which is a community-based mentoring programtargeting 75 children (aged 7–12 years) with low-income family background in HongKong. There are 18 local district councils who play a consultative role on district adminis-tration and affairs in five geographical constituencies in Hong Kong. The children wererecruited from five service centers of the collaborating organization which are from fivedistricts located in 4 out of 5 geographical constituencies in Hong Kong. The programaimed to provide the underprivileged children with English training by tutors in groupsand an adult mentor individually, to enhance their sense of community support and hopetoward the future.

In addition to the participants group, a comparison group (75 children) was recruitedthrough the network of the collaborating organization (mainly the school network). The150 children in the participants and comparison group (49.3% male, mean age = 8.84,standard deviation [SD] = 1.04) were surveyed in their respective settings at baseline(September 2011), and two follow-up surveys (February 2012 and August 2012). Whileall children participated in the second follow-up survey, 11 children (two from controlgroups) were unable to complete the third survey because of various reasons, includingattrition at an early stage of the program and that they could be contacted. Becausethe data in this study show no significant difference on the demographic data (i.e., age,gender, and socioeconomic status) and the targeted variables (perceived communitysupport, hope, and life satisfaction) for both groups, the data from the participant andcomparison groups could be pooled together and analyzed as a single group in thefollowing analysis.

Measure

To evaluate our proposed models, hope was measured in the baseline survey, perceivedcommunity support was measured in the second survey, and life satisfaction was measuredin the third survey. To further analyze whether the baseline data affect the result, the lifesatisfaction in the baseline was also measured.

Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffen, 1985) wasused to measure the respondents’ overall subjective evaluation of life satisfaction. Thefive-item SWLS has been widely applied and validated across nations, including with theChinese population (Sachs, 2003). Examples of items included “In most ways, my life isclose to my ideal” and “The conditions of my life are excellent.” The scale was presentedon a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The Cronbach’salpha is 0.81 (baseline) and 0.78 (thirdsurvey) in the present sample.

Hope was measured by the six-item Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1997). Thesix-item scale comprises both the agency and the pathway dimensions of hope to achievinga goal. The Chinese version of the scale has been validated (Tang, 2004) and reliabilityis also satisfactory (Ip, 2008). An example of items in the agency dimension of hope is “Ithink I am doing pretty well,” and an example of items in the pathway’s dimension of hopeis “When I have a problem, I can come up with lots of ways to solve it.” The Cronbach’salpha is 0.77 (agency) and 0.77 (pathway) in the present sample.

Perceived Community Support was measured by a 10-item scale adapted for thestudied sample, four of which are from the Perceived Community Support Questionnaire(PCSQ; Herrero & Gracia, 2007). The other six items, aligned with the Herreor andGracia’ s three subscale, were selected from the organizations’ earlier research in the



community. Principal component analyses were conducted on the 10 items, yielding asolution of three components with eigenvalue greater than 1, aligning with Herreo andGracia’s (2007) conceptualization.

The first factor (“community integration”) included three items, e.g., “I feel like mycommunity is my own.” The second factor (“community participation”) included threeitems, e.g., “I take part in activities in my community.” The third factor (“communityorganization”) included four items, e.g., “I find the facilities in this community perti-nent to my personal growth” and “I am accustomed to using the public facilities in thiscommunity.” The Cronbach’s alpha of the respective subscale in the present study is0.79 (community integration), 0.69 (community participation), and 0.70 (communityorganization).

Data Analyses

The two research hypotheses were evaluated with structural equation modeling (SEM).Compared to multiple regression, SEM can examine a more complex model, includingseveral dependent variables and mediating variables. Thus, it is regarded as a full, ratherthan partial, informational analysis (Kline, 2005).

Before the structural model was tested, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was con-ducted to ensure the statistical appropriateness of the measurement model (repre-sented by circles in Figure 1). To not overcomplicate the structural model (describedbelow), except the SWLS, in the present study, we used the subscales of Hope andPerceived Community Support (instead of individual items) to indicate relevant la-tent variables. We use the program AMOS 7.0 (Arbuckle, 2006) with maximum like-lihood (ML) estimation to assess the goodness of fit of the measures for the latentvariables.

To investigate whether Perceived Community Support and Hope predict life satis-faction, the measurement model was respecified to include structural regression pathsin place of factor covariance between Perceived Community Support, Hope, and lifesatisfaction. In other words, life satisfaction was regressed on Hope and Perceived Com-munity Support, and Perceived Community Support was regressed on Hope. As we wouldalso like to investigate if Perceived Community Support fully mediates the influence ofHope on life satisfaction, then the complete mediation model (without the direct pathfrom Hope to life satisfaction) was also tested and compared with the partial mediationmodel.

Figure 1. CFA model.



Table 1. Intercorrelations Among the Perceived Community Support, Hope, and Life Satisfaction, With Meansand Standard Deviations (N=137)

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Life satisfaction (3rd survey)2. Community integration .26**

3. Community participation .30** .60**

4. Community Organization .33** .52** .55**

5. Hope-Agency .20* .22* .25** .22*

6. Hope-Pathway .23** .37** .32** .34** .61**

7. Life satisfaction (1st survey) .30** .29** .31** .16 .55** 51**

M 24.37 13.70 13.31 16.47 12.61 12.85 25.01SD 5.98 3.62 3.36 4.29 3.38 3.57 6.98

Note. SD = standard deviation; m = mean.*p < .05. **p < .01.

RESULT

Preliminary Analyses

The means, standard deviations, correlations for all measures are shown in Table 1.Perceived Community Support and Hope were positively correlated with life satisfaction.All these findings offer preliminary support of our first hypothesis.

Measurement Model

The measurement model of this study achieved satisfactory fit (CFI, TFI > 0.90, RMSEA <

0.80) and a three-factor latent structure is ensured, suggesting the good performanceof measurement items in manifesting the latent factors. The significant and positivecovariance between the latent variables of Hope, Perceived Community Support, and lifesatisfaction confirms our first hypothesis that Hope and Perceived Community Supportare positively associated with higher level of life satisfaction.

Structural Model

The partial mediation model fit the data well, χ2 (32) = 53.43, p =.01, CFI =.95, TLI =.93, RMSEA =.07, but so did the complete mediation model, χ2 (32) = 53.88, p = .01,CFI = .95, TLI = .93, RMSEA = .07. Chi-square difference tests indicated that the completemediation model was not any worse off or better than the partial mediation model, χ2 diff(1, N = 137) =0.45, n.s. However, the path between Hope and life satisfaction in the partialmediation model was not statistically significant, indicating that the significant associationbetween Hope and life satisfaction becomes insignificant once the Perceived CommunitySupport is taken into account. Thus, a complete, rather than a partial, mediation modelemerged as the better model.

To test for mediation effect, approaches such as the four-step method (Baron &Kenny, 1986) and bootstrapping have been proposed. In the following paragraphs, weshall report analyses based on the bootstrapping approach, as advocated by Hayes (2009)and Preacher and Hayes (2004). The final model with the standardized coefficients isshown in Figure 2. While life satisfaction was predicted by Perceived Community Support(standardized coefficient = 0.46), community support was in turn predicted by Hope



Figure 2. Full mediation model.

(standardized coefficient = 0.49). In addition, the indirect effect was statistically sig-nificant (with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval of 0.07 to 0.41). Thus, PerceivedCommunity Supports fully mediated the association between Hope and life satisfaction.

We further validated the model by performing two more supplementary analyses.First, we examined the same model with the adjustment of the demographic variables,age, and sex, as well as the construct of life satisfaction at the baseline. Second, the samemodel is analyzed separately in the experimental group and control group to examine ifthe same structural model is also confirmed in these two groups. In the first supplementaryanalysis, with adjustment of demographic variables and including the baseline measure,the model still showed an adequate fit with the data, χ2 (80, N = 107) = 152.1, p < .01,CFI = .94, TLI = .92, RMSEA = .06, the fit indices show a worse off result than the originalfull mediation model.

In addition, the factor loadings revealed that the direct path from gender and lifesatisfaction (baseline) to life satisfaction (survey 3) and perceived community support,as well as age to all variables, were not significant. The second supplementary analysison the testing of model invariance between the two subgroups of the target participants,experimental and control group, was conducted in two phases (Meyers, Gamst, & Guarino,2006). In the first phase, an “unconstrained” or free model, in which the path coefficientwill be estimated simultaneously and separately for each group, will be compared with a“constrained” or null model, in which the corresponding path coefficient of each groupwas supposed to be equal to the other. The comparison of the two model, χ2 (19, N =137) = 13.69, p > .05, yields nonsignificant results. That means there is no significantdifference between the two models and thus we do not need to perform the second phaseanalysis.1

Therefore, the result of the two supplementary analyses demonstrates that the originalfull mediation model still holds even if including the demographic variables and theoutcome variable measured in the baseline or applying the model to the two subgroupsof the participants. Thus, for simplicity, only the original model was presented.

1Interested readers can refer to the authors for additional information.



DISCUSSION

Lending support to our first hypothesis, our findings indicate that Perceived CommunitySupport and Hope is associated with life satisfaction. This is in line with previous find-ings that sense of community is a significant predictor of life satisfaction and subjectivewellbeing (Davidson & Cotter, 1991; Prezza et al., 2001; Prezza & Costantini, 1998) andaccumulating evidence that hope is associated with life satisfaction (Bailey, Eng, Frisch,& Snyder, 2007; Marques et al., 2009). What this study contribute is further the corro-boration in Asia, specifically, Hong Kong. In the Chinese society, the idea of hope andperceived community support was not only understudied,2 but were also rarely examinedaltogether (both internal and external resources), especially in relationship to one’s lifesatisfaction and well-being.

This study, thus, provides valuable evidence to support the importance of both hopeand perceived community support (internal and external resources) to the developmentof life satisfaction in Chinese. Furthermore, the dual emphasis of both internal andexternal resources appears to support Whittaker et al.’s (1986) call for the ecologicalparadigm in youth service.

In addition, the test of our structural models demonstrated more clearly the asso-ciation of hope in relation to life satisfaction, as well as the critical role of perceivedcommunity support as a mediating variable. First, hope was related to the children’s lifesatisfaction indirectly. Second, perceived community support fully accounts for the rela-tionship between hope and life satisfaction. The mediating effect of perceived communitysupport in the relationship between hope and life satisfaction suggests two possible un-derlying mechanisms: The first is about the importance of individual factors and personalattributes (i.e., hope) to the subjective feeling of being supported by the community, andthe second process is about the importance of environmental support in one’s pursuit ofindividual goals or attaining life satisfaction.

The first mechanism may be because hopeful children tend to respond positivelyto others’ support. Alternatively, they may be more enthusiastic or motivated to obtainexternal resources to achieve their life goal and plan, resulting in a higher level oflife satisfaction. This finding echoes with Bailey et al.’s (2007) study that demonstratesthat hope is a strong predictor of life satisfaction and argues that the concept can beunderstood as a motivational factor. Nevertheless, our results further suggest that thepromising effect of hope on life satisfaction may not be able to fulfill without adequatecommunity support.

While the effect of hope on life satisfaction is making sense, the mediation model ofthe present investigation highlights the critical role of availability of community resourcesand support. That may suggest that while the hopeful thinking could motivate childrento acquire resources and support from the community, the availability of and accessibilityto adequate resources and support in the community critically determine whether thechildren with hopeful thinking can achieve their goal, finally leading to satisfaction withlife. This is especially true for the underprivileged children living in a relatively lessresourceful environment. It also highlights the limitation of some youth service modelsthat merely focus on enhancing internal resources and target individual change.

2Interested readers may refer to studies on hope through the perspective of indigenous psychology (Averill &Sundararajan, 2004) or religious or cultural studies (Overmyer & Lai, 2002).



Limitation and Future Directions

First, assessments were simply based on the adolescents’ self-report and perceptions.While participants’ own reporting may yield a stronger correlation with one’s own attitudeand behavior, it is useful to include other stakeholders’ (such as parents) perspective infuture studies. Second, this study has not examined in detail the support from family andschool setting in which the children inhabit, even though family and school are generallyrecognized as the critical context mediating the effect of poverty on children. As Hustonand Bentley (2010) argued, studying the effect of these different contexts separately,instead of interactively, may not allow a full picture of the phenomenon.

Third, as this study targets children from an underprivileged background, whether theresult can be generalized to the general population is yet to be verified. Fourth, althoughit is generally understood that the presence of social support resources would lead toperceived level of social support (Barrera, 2000), perceived community support does nottotally tap into external resources (as evidenced in the availability and accessibility of theseresources). It would be better to assess the external resources by using objective measuresand community or social groups as units of analysis, instead of subjective perception ofthe participants and individual as the unit of analysis (like this study).

Despite these limitations, the present study has some unique strengths. First, the lon-gitudinal design of the study, despite being only 1-year long, provides stronger evidenceof hope and perceived community support as a robust antecedent to life satisfaction.Second, it adds to the accumulating evidence on the relationship between hope and lifesatisfaction (Marques, Lopez, & Pais-Ribeiro, 2011; Marques et al., 2009), and demon-strates the importance of nurturing hopeful thinking in the children’s well-being andsatisfaction with life, particularly those from the underprivileged background. Third, thisstudy furthers our understanding of the underlying mechanism between hope and lifesatisfaction, pertaining to the critical role of perceived community support. This providesfurther evidence in support of the importance of both internal and external resourcesfor the development of children from underprivileged backgrounds and highlights theimperative of offering ecological youth service.

To conclude, this study provides further evidence for our understanding of the re-silience development process of children who grow up in poverty. Not only are bothhopeful thinking and perceived community support essential to the children satisfactionwith life, but also the perceived community support plays a mediating role in the influ-ence of hope on life satisfaction. This matches with what Werner (1995) argues in theresilience literature, that to overcome great odds, protective factors–both within the in-dividual and outside sources of support–are equally valuable. The practical implication isthat we can nurture and infuse the children with a sense of hope but we also need to givethem enough and adequate support services to which they have access.

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