Hope is an important component that helps engage people in solving problems. The development of an instructional model on climate change and forests provided an opportunity to design and test a measurement tool to assess hope about climate change. In this article, we described the process and determined the reliability and validity of a newly developed 11-item Climate Change Hope Scale (CCHS). The study involved high school students from the southeastern United States during fall of 2013 and spring of 2015 (N = 1,902, 14-18 years old). The factor analysis confirmed a three-factor solution with good model fit: (a) collective-sphere willpower and waypower, (b) personal-sphere willpower and waypower, and (c) lack of willpower and waypower. This study suggests that the CCHS is a valid, reliable, and feasible tool to measure hope in the context of climate change among U.S. high school students.
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