Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach.

Abstract

We developed a muRidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure conceptually distinct aspects of problem- focused coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seek- ing of instrumental social support); five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotion- focused coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement). Study 1 reports the development of scale items. Study 2 reports correlations between the various coping scales and sev- eral theoretically relevant personality measures in an effort to provide preliminary information about the inventory's convergent and discriminant validity, Study 3 uses the inventory to assess coping responses among a group of undergraduates who were attempting to cope with a specific stressful episode. This study also allowed an initial examination of associations between dispositional and situational coping tendencies.