The purpose of this study was to explore dimensions of hope in a community-based older population; relate dimensions of hope to known variables such as stressful life events, social support, personal control, religiosity, selected demographic variables and health; examine whether hope functioned as an outcome or a mediating variable in the relationship between stressful life events, personal and social resources and health; and determine the extent to which these dimensions retrospectively predict health. Theoretical bases for this study were drawn from propositions about hope from psychology, sociology, psychiatry, philosophy and theology.

A sample of 126 older adults was drawn from two federally-subsidized senior citizen housing centers. Participants ranged in age from 60 - 89 years. Data were collected with a questionnaire that measured each variable of interest. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, factor analysis, correlations and multiple regression.

Two hypotheses using correlational analysis tested hope and health as dependent variables. Hope was positively related to social support, personal control, religious beliefs, mental and physical health. No relationships were found between hope and stressful life events, activities of daily living, age and socioeconomic status. Relationships between hope and being female and marital status could not be determined because of limited numbers of males and married persons in the sample. Both mental and physical health were positively related to hope and personal control. Only mental health was positively related to social support. Inverse relationships were noted between mental and physical health and both stressful life events and age. Partial correlations were used to develop a model depicting the interrelationships among variables in the study. Site, activities of daily living and religious beliefs functioned as moderating variables in this model.

These findings were examined for their clinical implications and a clinical intervention model was proposed. Recommendations were made for further research related to hope.