Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Validation of the Perceived Hope Scale in Arabic-speaking adults living in Gaza in the midst of war, destruction and death

Abstract

Background: Despite its obvious relevance for clinical practice and research, it is surprising that yet no hope measure is available for use among Arabic-speaking populations, especially those most vulnerable who have been going through major humanitarian crises. This paper proposed to provide novel insights into psychometric information on hope scales, by examining, for the first time, the psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the Perceived Hope Scale (PHS) in Palestinians living in Gaza who have endured several months of suffering since the war began in October 2023. Method: This study had a cross-sectional design and applied a quantitative research approach. It was carried-out over a month period (September 2024) using an anonymous self-report questionnaire that was shared through social networks and the snowball sampling technique. A total of 534 Arabic-speaking Palestinian adults aged over 18 years and currently living in Gaza took part in the study. Results: The factorial structure of the Arabic PHS was explored using Confirmatory Factor Analyses, and showed that the fit indexes of the one-factor solution reached the standard of good model fit. Furthermore, our results suggest that the Arabic PHS possesses excellent internal consistency reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha value of .90 for the total score. Invariance was established in our sample at the metric and scalar levels in terms of sex groups. PHS scores significantly and positively correlated with religiosity, resilience and post-traumatic growth. In addition, and as expected, PHS inversely correlated with anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Overall, our results add to the measurement assessment of the PHS, lending further support to its value as a sound measure to assess perceived hope in a new context and cultural background of Muslim, Arabic-speaking adults and fragile survivors of several decades of war that dramatically escalated over the past months.