A Meta-Analysis of hope enhancement strategies in clinical and community settings
Open accessAbstract
The last two decades have seen the development of theoretical models of hope, which have greatly influenced the field of positive psychology and the study of well-being. Recently, there has been increased interest in using these theories to create interventions and other strategies to enhance hopefulness among clinic-referred individuals and members of the community. We used meta-analysis to determine whether these hope enhancement strategies were associated with (a) increased hopefulness, (b) improved life satisfaction, and (c) decreased psychological distress among participants. Analysis of 27 studies involving 2, 154 participants showed significant, but small, effect sizes for hopefulness and life satisfaction and no overall relationship between hope enhancement strategies and decreased psychological distress. Moderation tests indicated greater effect sizes for studies involving brief interventions, conducted in laboratory settings, and administered to students or individuals recruited from the community. Results also suggested publication bias. As the current study provides only modest evidence for the ability of hope enhancement strategies to increase hopefulness or life satisfaction and no consistent evidence that hope enhancement strategies can alleviate psychological distress., traditional psychotherapeutic interventions or other effective positive psychological constructs (e.g., gratitude, optimism, mindfulness) might best be targeted in applied settings.
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Higher levels of hope are associated with improved treatment adherence, ability to cope with illness and loss, and enhanced psychological adjustment.
“It is clinically important as higher levels of hope are associated with improved treatment adherence, ability to cope with illness and loss and also enhanced psychological adjustment (Snyder, 2002;Van Servellen, Chang, Garcia, & Lombardi, 2002;Weis & Speridakos, 2011).”
From Brief group‐based acceptance and commitment therapy for stroke survivors. (2019) · cites this paper as Weis & Speridakos, 2011
Cites
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“Furthermore, other positive psychological interventions are associated with moderate to large increases in wellbeing (mean d = .61; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009).”
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Hope therapy in a community sample: a pilot investigation
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“…program for youths in special education -.64 -.14 Buckland (2010) 12 2/2/2/1/1/1/ 1/2/2 Hope-based intervention for adults with schizophrenia .40 Cheavens et al. (2006) 32 1/1/2/3/2/1/ 1/2/1 Hope enhancement group for adults from the community .34 .42 .01 Coppock et al. (2010)a 43 2/1/2/1/1/2/…”
BackgroundBehavioral activation interventions for well-being: A meta-analysis
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Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Gross, J. J. (2015) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0038648 · Cited by 546 · see citing works
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Brief group‐based acceptance and commitment therapy for stroke survivors.
Majumdar, S., & Morris, R. (2019) · British Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjc.12198 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Berg, C. J., Schubel, L. C., McCready, D. M., Shajan, S., Bhanot, P., Dopke, C., Howlader, A., Hinds, P. S., Levine, J., Lyon, M. E., et al. (2025) · Quality of Life Research · doi:10.1007/s11136-025-04010-0 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Weis, R., & Speridakos, E. C.
- Affiliations
- Denison University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weis, Robert
- ORCID
- Weis, Robert
- Venue
- Psychology of Well-Being: Theory, Research and Practice
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5
- ISSN
- 2211-1522 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2163638869
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Psychology of Well-Being Theory Research and Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- hope, life satisfaction, psychological distress, positive psychology interventions, brief intervention, community-based intervention, clinical intervention, publication bias, well-being
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