this study confirms previous findings by herth and others that the concept of hope is not easily defined. it also supports the multidimensional aspects of hope reported by herth. the dimensions of hope as put forth for patients in the HHS also are relevant to the experiences of family caregivers. as shown in Table 2, most of the item means are well above 3, indicating that family caregivers were able to maintain a high level of hope in the midst of their loved one cancer experiences. In addition, the statistically significant correlations between dimensions, (P