Construction and validity evidence of a scale for coping with difficult social academic interpersonal situations

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a scale to investigate the ways of coping with interpersonal situations considered difficult in the Brazilian university context. The items were based on the results of a study previously obtained in a focus group with university students. The first steps of the study were the analysis of judges and the investigation of the semantic validity. After these steps, a total of 1366 (female = 74.9%) students from public and private institutions participated in the study. The study followed the steps design of the items, development of the first version of the instrument, and initial tests of validity (content validity and internal consistency). The results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated the maintenance of 26 items, distributed in four factors: focus on emotion (α = 0.73), focus on social support (α = 0.81), focus on religious coping (α = 0.83), and focus on the problem (α = 0.70). The final scale solution was considered satisfactory for the proposed instrument, with consistency for the application in other studies and investigations that evaluate the coping strategies of students in situations considered difficult in the university.

Coping Scale for Difficult Socio-academic Situations: Short Version

“…All participants responded to the EESSAD (Soares et al, 2018). This measure consisted of 26 items, which describe situations that require university students to use assertive skills to deal with criticism, make claims, publicly manifest themselves in academic activities, express ideas and opinions, and refuse inconvenient requests.…”

“…From this perspective, in the present study, we performed a confirmatory analysis of the EESSAD, considering the relevance of coping strategies for adaptation to higher education (Soares et al, 2018). We also tested a reduced version of the scale, in line with the tendency, in the field of psychology, to use scales with fewer items (Schweizer, 2011), usually performed better than extensive scales (Kemper et al, 2018).…”

“…Given the above, we aimed to perform a confirmatory analysis of the EESSAD and test a reduced version for the instrument. The importance of research aimed at measuring coping in difficult socio-academic situations lies in the relevance of coping strategies for adaptation to higher education (Soares et al, 2018).…”

Peculiarities of Ideas of Graduate Students about to Coping Difficult Life Situations in Their Future Professional Activity and about Ways to Overcome Them

“…Soares, L. Mourão, F.A. Maia и другие выявили следующие способы преодоления трудных межличностных ситуаций, которые считаются трудными в университете: фокус на эмоциях, сосредоточение на социальной поддержке, сосредоточение на религиозном совладании и сосредоточение на проблеме [22].…”

Transformations Of Student Personalities While Adapting To Hardships

“…However, in young adults having enrolled in a higher education institution, adaptation to learning may be accompanied with serious issues, because requirements to educational content and busyness of students are constantly on the rise, while the learning conditions stay the same; the issue is aggravated by shift from one form of learning to another (Soares et al, 2018;An, Dong, & Liu, 2013). Thus, the first year of studies in the higher education institution may be considered as a period of hardships that students shall constantly overcome.…”