Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the constructs of sense of coherence and hope orientation, and to compare gender and race groups on these measures. Antonovsky’s (Unravelling the mystery of health: How people manage stress and stay well. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1987) short version orientation-to-life questionnaire (OLQ-13) and the hope orientation measure (HOME) were completed by a group of 730 postgraduate students. Classical analysis methods were used to evaluate the differences in mean scores of gender and race groups, and Rasch analysis methods were used to evaluate the differential item functioning (DIF) for the subgroups. No statistically significant differences were found between the gender groups on either sense of coherence or hope orientation, but statistically significant differences were found between the race groups on both measures for both classical and Rasch analyses.
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The Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) is available in the public domain and written permission was obtained from the authors of the hope orientation measure (HOME) to publish some of the item content.
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van der Westhuizen (née Coetzee), S., de Beer, M., Bekwa, N. (2013). The Role of Gender and Race in Sense of Coherence and Hope Orientation Results. In: Wissing, M. (eds) Well-Being Research in South Africa. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6368-5_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6368-5_22
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