Validation of the Employment Hope Scale (EHS) among summer youth employment program participants

The purpose of this study is to validate the Employment Hope Scale (EHS) among vulnerable youth who are seeking to enter the workforce through a summer youth employment program (SYEP). Hong, Polanin, and Pigott (2012) developed the EHS as a client-centered measure based on its earlier conceptualization from the client focus group interviews resulting in an original delineation of a 24-item six-factor structure. Considering a dearth of reliable measures of youth employment hope, this study examined the applicability of EHS to the youth population by validating it using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results from a sample of 255 SYEP participants found an 18-item 5-factor EHS under two components: (1) psychological empowerment (self-worth; self-perceived capability) and (2) goal-oriented pathways (self-motivation; utilization of skills and resources; goal-orientation). Convergent, discriminant, and known-groups validity tests also confirmed that the EHS is a valid measure among SYEP participants.