Psychosocial predictors of perceived hope across cultures : a study of Czech and Maltese contexts

Abstract

Background: In view of the globalised nature of today’s world in which many cultural differences are fading away, we find it interesting to explore whether and to what extent there are differences in hope levels between two nationalities that are culturally relatively similar, yet differ in many respects. Although both the Czech Republic and Malta are developed European countries, they differ in terms of history, socio-economic background, culture and language. Thus, we assume that there might also be differences between Czech and Maltese populations in the psychosocial determinants of perceived hope. Aim: As the concept of perceived hope is relatively new, the main aim of the study was to investigate whether it is more related to social factors (positive relations, loneliness), dispositional characteristics such as positive mindset (dispositional optimism), or self-transcendent resources (spirituality, generativity), and whether the role of these resources varies across the two countries. Secondly, it was to investigate whether there are significant differences in the levels of above variables among Czech and Maltese populations. We also addressed the question of whether there are any significant differences in the measured variables related to gender, age, family status, education level, and religious beliefs. Method: For this study we employed data from international Hope Barometer survey collected in November 2015. Data were obtained through an online anonymous questionnaire and processed using IBM SPSS23. The sample consisted of 177 Czech and 90 Maltese respondents (108 male, 159 female, aged 18 to 79). We used questionnaires to measure perceived hope, optimism, positive relations, loneliness, spirituality, and generativity. Data was analyzed via descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, multiple linear regression analysis, independent-samples t-test, and one-way ANOVA. Results: Czech respondents scored significantly higher in perceived hope, optimism, and spirituality when compared to Maltese participants. No significant differences between the two samples were found in positive relations, loneliness and generativity. In the Czech sample, higher perceived hope was predicted by optimism (β=.516, p<0.01), generativity (β=.192, p<0.01), and loneliness (β=-.166, p<0.05). In the Maltese sample the significant predictors were optimism (β=.547, p<0.01) and spirituality (β=.186, p<0.05). An analysis of the effect of demographic factors showed some interesting culture-specific differences. Conclusions: The outcomes of the study showed that perceived hope seems to be related predominantly to dispositional characteristics such as an optimistic mindset, but, an important role is also played by self-transcendent resources and ability to maintain social relationships. In general, though, our results support the conceptualisation of perceived hope suggested by Krafft et al. (2017).