Transactional Model of Stress and Coping
Theoretically Driven Scales to Assess Coping Efforts:
- Ways of Coping Inventory (WOC)
- Multidimensional Coping Inventory (MCI)
- Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE) scale
- Cancer Behavior Inventory (CBI)
- Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP)
Ways of Coping Inventory (WOC)
Used with a particular stressful encounter in mind, measures what a person thinks, feels and does in the particular situation
- Includes eight subscales with 66 items
- Confrontive coping: aggressive efforts to alter the situation; hostility and risk-taking
- Distancing: efforts to detach and create positive outlook
- Self-controlling: efforts to regulate one's feelings
- Seeking social support (tangible, informational, and emotional)
- Accepting responsibility
- Escape-avoidance: wishful thinking and efforts to avoid the problem
- Planful problem solving: deliberate efforts to alter situation
- Positive reappraisal: efforts to create positive meaning
- Can be completed in ~10 minutes
- Items scored on 4-point Likert scale
- Internal Consistency Reliability acceptable (a=.61-.79)
Folkman and Lazarus, 1988; Lundqvist and Ahlstrom, 2006
Multidimensional Coping Inventory (MCI)
Measures stylistic or dispositional coping
- Includes three subscales with 70 items
- Task-oriented coping (e.g., outline my priorities, work to understand the situation, think about the event and learn from my mistakes)
- Emotion-oriented coping (e.g., blame myself for procrastinating, become very tense, daydream about a better time or place)
- Avoidance-oriented coping (e.g., treat myself to a favorite food or snack, visit a friend, take time off and get away from the situation)
- Items scored on 5-point Likert scales for frequency
- Internal Consistency Reliability highly satisfactory (a=.76-.91)
Endler and Parker, 1990
Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE) scale
Measures types of coping strategies
- Includes twelve subscales
- Active coping
- Suppression of competing activities
- Planning
- Restraint
- Social support
- Positive re-framing
- Religion
- Acceptance
- Denial
- Disengagement
- Use of humor
- Self-distraction
- Items assessed using a 4-point Likert scale for frequency (never to a lot)
- Internal Consistency Reliability acceptably high, with only one scale falling below .6 (a=.45-.92).
Carver, Sheier, and Weintraub, 1989
Cancer Behavior Inventory (CBI)
Measure of self-efficacy for coping with cancer; provides a refined tool to assess secondary appraisal
- Includes eight subscales with 33 items
- Maintenance of activity and independence
- Seeking medical information
- Understanding medical information
- Stress management
- Coping with treatment-related side effects
- Accepting cancer/maintaining positive attitude
- Affective regulation
- Seeking support
- Internal Consistency Reliability high (a=.94 overall).
Merluzzi, T., Nairn RC, Hegde K, Martinez Sanchez MA, Dunn L., 2001
Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP)
Measure of parents' response to managing family life when they have a seriously and/or chronically ill child.
- Includes three subscales with 33 items
- Maintaining of family integration, cooperation and an optimistic definition of the situation
- Maintaining social support, self-esteem and psychological stability
- Understanding medical information through communication with other parents and consultation with medical staff
- Items assessed using a 4-point scale ranging from extremely helpful to not helpful
Gold, J.I., et al., 2008