COPE-30: psychometric properties of the short version of the Russian-language inventory for coping strategies evaluation

Background. Numerous studies show that coping plays a big role in a person's adaptation to stressful situations and becomes the center of psychological practice, which dictates the need to develop a reliable, valid and compact tool that allows you to identify certain coping strategies.

The aim of the study was to develop a brief version of the Russian-language methodology for evaluating coping strategies (COPE-30) based on the full Russian version.

Methods. The survey included socio-demographic indicators and an assessment of life situation difficulty. The following methods were used: COPE, Hardiness Survey, Personal Self-Activation Inventory, "Subjective appraisal of difficult life situation" technique. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, three-way ANOVA, and two-way ANCOVA were used as data processing methods.

Sample. Data were obtained from an online survey (2021–2022). In total, the study involved 1395 people aged 18 to 76 years (average 32 ± 11 years, median = 31 years), of which 72,5 % were female, 24,6 % male, and 2,9 % other.

Results. Psychometric indices indicate good internal consistency of the COPE-30 scales. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirm the correspondence of the 15-factor COPE-30 model to the data obtained under different instructions. Three second-order factors obtained on the basis of 15 coping strategies correlate with all the characteristics of a difficult life situation, self-activation and hardiness. Women more often use the coping strategies "Concentration on emotions and their active expression", "Religion" and "Emotional social support", and men — "Humor", even when controlling for the difficulty of the situation.

Conclusion. The proposed COPE-30 inventory is a sufficiently reliable, internally consistent and valid tool for determining individual coping strategies. It has the same good psychometric characteristics as the full version of the inventory, and works well with situational and dispositional approaches.

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