Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Cyntia Mendes de; OLIVEIRA, Júlia Angelo de  and  GIACOMONI, Claudia Hofheinz. Systematic Review of Instruments for Assessing Optimism in Childhood. Gerais, Rev. Interinst. Psicol. [online]. 2022, vol.15, n.3, e18535.  Epub Jan 20, 2025. ISSN 1983-8220.  https://doi.org/10.36298/gerais202215e18535.

The construct of optimism has been considered from two perspectives: the optimistic explanatory style, related to how individuals explain the events that happen in their lives, and dispositional optimism, which refers to generalized positive expectations about the future. Given that this construct is seen as a developmental variable, this systematic literature review aimed to identify the available instruments reported in empirical studies for assessing childhood optimism. Electronic searches were performed on PsycInfo, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases. In total, 1,097 articles were found, and 37 of them met the inclusion criteria. The Youth Life Orientation Test was the most widely used instrument for assessing optimism in childhood, followed by the Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire, the Revised Life Orientation Test and the Parent-rated Life Orientation Test. Only one instrument found was developed in Brazil. This gap indicates that this area still has a lot to be developed in the country.

Keywords : Psychological assessment; Optimism; Childhood.

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