Hopeful Future Expectations Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Among Youth

Background: Future expectations have been identified as a strong predictor of positive youth development and behavior. Adolescents who anticipate a negative future are more likely to engage in problem behaviors like delinquency, substance use, and risky sexual behavior. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate hopeful future expectations (HFE) of adolescents and young adults (AYA) post COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An anonymous cross-sectional online survey was sent to AYA aged 16-21 years in 2022, living in Ohio. Hopeful future expectations, Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), and the 2-item version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC2) were used to provide overall HFE, resilience, and dispositional optimism scores. Hierarchical clustering and regression models were employed. Results: A 30% response rate was achieved (468 participants) with 69% (324) Caucasian/White and 51% (239) female. Prior diagnosis with a chronic disease was reported in 20% (96) of participants, and 16% (77) were former or current e-cigarette users. Three clusters were identified in the hierarchical analysis. The low HFE level contained 14.7% (62) of participants, while the moderate and high HFE levels contained 39.2% (166) and 46.8% (198) of participants, respectively. Regression analysis results indicated a collective significant effect of resilience, dispositional optimism, sex, participant educational level, religion, general health, e-cigarette use, and COVID-19 testing on HFE. At the end of the questionnaire, 32 participants provided comments on aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that were not addressed in the survey. Conclusion: Our findings provided HFE estimates among AYA, including minority groups, providing insights of the effect of a public health crisis on this population. The development of preventive programs and early interventions are warranted during a public health crisis. Cultural differences with respect to parenting and future orientation, participation in sport activities, mentorship, and social engagement in the local community may yield different levels of HFE.