Measuring optimism in Hong Kong and mainland Chinese with the revised Life Orientation Test

To examine the utility of a Chinese version of the revised Life Orientation Test (CLOT-R) to measure optimism among Chinese students, the CLOT-R, the General Health Questionnaire, a physical symptom checklist and measures of constructs related to optimism were administered to a total of 404 Hong Kong and 328 mainland Chinese college students. Results indicated that the CLOT-R exhibited convergent and discriminant validity in the two samples. Nevertheless, confirmatory factor analysis of the responses to the CLOT-R showed that a one-factor interpretation only applied to the data of the Hong Kong but not the mainland sample. When the test was applied to mainland Chinese, the positively and the negatively worded items split into two factors. These findings were discussed in the light of issues related to generalisation of the revised Life Orientation Test across cultures.