Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure hope for cancer patients in Korea. This Hope Scale(Kim and Lee Hope Scale : KLHS) was developed based on not only critical universal attributes explaining both basic hope (generalized hope) and specific hope but also particular characteristics varying from culture and situation, which were revealed in a comprehensive review of the literature. Initially 60 items were generated from three sources : 36 items from the Q-sample used in the Kim's study, 1992, 21 representative items(statements) from the rest Q-population of the above study, 3 items related to the newly discovered category in the new qualitative study using 10 open ended question(death and dying) from the new qualitative study on the 20 cancer patients. At first 3 items were eliminated by the critique of the content validity experts, who were high experienced nurse, nursing professors. And then 4 items were eliminated in consideration of corrected item total correlation coefficiency, theoretical framework of this study. After that, 14 items were eliminated in comparing two or three items identified with the same meaning in each factor by this research team with factor loading and communality. This Hope Scale was finally constructed with 39 items. Psychometric evaluation was done on 492 adults(104 cancer patients, 338 adults who imagined who were cancer patients ranging from 18 to 76 years old. The results revealed high internal consistency Alpha coefficiency of .9351. Principal Component Factor Analysis with Varimax Rotation resulted in 8 factors with more than 1.0 of Eigenvalue. Referring to Eigenvalues percent of variances(>60%), reproduced correlation matrix, and our theoretical framework, we decided the eight factors were the best solution to represent hope dimension sufficiently. The eight factors were "confidence in possibility of cure", "sense of internal satisfaction", "being in communion", "meaning of life", "Korean hope perspectives", "belief in god", "self confidence", "self-worth". Among these factors, "confidence in possibility of cure", "sense of internal satisfaction", "Korean hope dimensions from those of Nowotny Hope Scale and Herth Hope Scale. There was significant negative correlation of r=-.4736 between this hope scale and Beck Hopelessness Scale(BHS), and significant positive correlation of r=.3685 between this hope scale and Life Orientation Test(LOT) which indicate convergent and discriminant validity. The range of hope scores was from 71 to 244, with a mean of 171.97(SD=28.16).
• Keywords: Hope; Measurement; Cancer Patient

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