Hope and Anxiety Disorders among Young Adults and Adults

Abstract

This paper focused on how hope can play a key role in the treatment of anxiety disorders among young adults (18-25 years) and adults (26-40 years) with the help a mixed-method approach. Clinical interventions of 200 participants were analysed quantitatively to develop a relationship between anxiety severity and dispositional hope. These observations revealed that hope and anxiety are inversely proportional to each other in both groups though, strongly associated among adults. After conducting t-tests on individual samples, it was observed that adults displayed a substantially high hope to anxiety score ratio than younger adults. For qualitative analysis, 60 participants were asked for semi-structured interviews which analysed thematically. This resulted in identification of six key themes which included Initial Hope and Hesitation, Hope through Therapeutic Connection, and Hope as Resilience During Setbacks. The interviews revealed that adults think hope is stable and internally affixed whereas young adults consider it as situational and therapy induced. When these findings were interpreted, it was observed that there is a convergence in the hope recognition as a protective psychological element whereas a divergence in its conceptualization during the development stage. These findings display how hope acts as a critical mechanism for anxiety recovery which can be considered as therapeutic among different age groups and develop hope-enhancing interventions.