Abstract

GARCIA, Cirilo Humberto et al. Effects of social identity, self-esteem, schooling, and age on hope. Acción psicol. [online]. 2020, vol.17, n.1, pp.61-72.  Epub July 25, 2022. ISSN 2255-1271.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ap.17.1.25221.

Social identity theory implies knowledge, affect, and the value given to the individual as a consequence of his/her membership in a given social group. The primary objective of this study was to analyze the direct explanatory power of social identity, schooling, and age on self-esteem, as well as the indirect effects of those variables (through the mediating variable self-esteem) on hope. A non-probabilistic sample composed of 657 persons from southern Nuevo Leon was recruited (mean age = 39.75 years; SD = 16.96). The sample comprised 483 women (73.5 %) and 174 men (26.5 %), with a mean age of 39.54 years (SD = 15.97) and 40.35 years (SD = 19.5), respectively. After comparing the mean age, no statistically significant differences were found between men and women, t(655) = -.540, p = .589, d = .03, 95 % CI (-3.75, 2.13). The age of the participants composing the total sample ranged from 14 to 90 years. The sample’s number of years of schooling ranged from 0 to 15 (M = 6.87 years, SD = 2.91). To measure independent and dependent variables, in this study were used the following instruments: (a) Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), (b) Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and (c) Social Identity Scale (García & Corral-Verdugo, 2010). The proposed theoretical model was tested through structural equation modeling, and its parameters were estimated through Maximum Likelihood estimation method. Eight goodness-of-fit indices were used to validate the model: relative chi-square (χ2/df), Jöreskog and Sörbom’s Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) and Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index (AGFI), Bentler’s Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Bentler and Bonett's Normed Fit Index (NFI), Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR). The criteria to establish that the proposed model showed an excellent goodness of fit were: χ2/df ≤ 2; GFI, CFI, NFI, and NNFI ≥ .95, AGFI ≥ .90; RMSEA and SRMR ≤ .05 (Byrne, 2016). Before performing structural equation modeling, multivariate normality was tested. Since the value of Mardia’s coefficient was lower than 70 (Mardia’s coefficient = 9.76), the assumption of multivariate normality was held. After performing descriptive statistics, the Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients between the diverse variables included in this study were calculated. It is worth noting that almost all the variables showed statistically significant correlations at a p-value < .01. The highest correlation coefficients were found between self-esteem and hope (r = .558, p < .01, 95 % CI .494, .618), and between social identity and hope (r = .440, p < .01, 95 % CI .368, .511), whereas the lowest correlation coefficients were found between social identity and schooling (r = -.110, p < .01, 95 % CI -.188, .032), and between self-esteem and age (r = -.123, p < .01, 95 %, CI-203, -.033). The only non-statistically significant correlation was found between hope and age (r = -.015, p > .01, 95% CI -.087, .058). Since none of the correlations was higher than .80, the assumption of no multicollinearity was held and, consequently, the goodness-of-fit indices can be considered as reliable (Kline, 2015). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the effects, both direct and indirect, of the independent variables upon the dependent variables. With regard to hope, the model yields an explained variance of 37 % (d ≥ 26 % = large effect size) and shows well goodness-of-fit indices: χ2 / df = 2.618, GFI = .997, AFGI = .978, CFI = .995, NNFI = .995, NFI = .992, RMSEA = .048 (90 % CI, .001, .100), and SRMR = .017. It is concluded that social identity, together with some contextual variables of a personal nature (for instance, age and schooling) is probably very important to explain the levels of self-esteem and hope.

Keywords : social identity; hope; self-esteem; rural Mexicans; structural equation modeling.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )