Confirmatory factor analysis of a short form of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations

✍ Scribed by Sharon L. Cohan; Kerry L. Jang; Murray B. Stein

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 108 KB
• Volume: 62
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/jclp.20211

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The 48‐item Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) was designed to assess three dimensions (task‐oriented, emotional, and avoidant) of self‐reported responses to stressful circumstances, but results from factor analyses suggest four factors. The present research used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the four‐factor structure for the 21‐item CISS short form in samples of 1,628 undergraduate students and 390 community‐dwelling adults. Factors corresponding to task‐oriented and emotional scales were orthogonal and were well defined by their seven constituent items. The avoidant scale was split into two three‐item parcels that describe specific avoidance behaviors (contact a friend and treat oneself) rather than broad response categories. In the undergraduate sample, depression and anxiety correlated negatively with the task‐oriented scale and positively with the emotional scale. In the community sample, the emotional scale was positively correlated with neuroticism and negatively correlated with extroversion and agreeableness, whereas the task‐oriented scale was negatively correlated with neuroticism and positively correlated with extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. It was concluded that the task‐oriented and emotional scales have potential as measures of two types of responses to routine stressors. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 62: 273–283, 2006.