Coping assessment from the perspective of the person-situation interaction: Development and validation of the Situated Coping Questionnaire for Adults (SCQA)

Abstract

Background: Although coping strategies are considered to contribute to resilience to adversity, their use is not stable, but varies depending on the specific adversity. However, to date, most of the questionnaires assessing coping do not consider its situational character. The objective of this study is to develop and validate the Situated Coping Questionnaire for Adults (SCQA), which assesses coping in the face of five different kinds of adverse contexts to take into account its situational dimension.

Methods: A total of 430 Spanish adults (256 from the general population, 77 people suffering from cancer or HIV, and 97 parents of children with cancer or developmental problems) completed the SCQA and two resilience questionnaires (the Brief Resilience Scale and the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale) for validation purposes.

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses showed the superiority of the person-situation model; the situation influences the degree to which people use specific coping strategies; however, coping is also stable to some extent. Regression analyses showed that coping strategies contribute to predict resilience, supporting the validity of the SCQA. The questionnaire and its sub-scales showed adequate reliability.

Conclusion: The SCQA is deemed a reliable and valid means of situated coping assessment for use in several populations.