The Brief COPE: Measurement Invariance and Psychometric Properties among Community and At-Risk Portuguese Parents

Abstract

Parenting generally brings about high internal and external demands, which can be perceived as stressful when they exceed families’ resources. When faced with such stressors, parents need to deploy several adaptive strategies to successfully overcome these challenges. One of such strategies is coping, an important cognitive and behavioural skill. In this study, we intended to examine the psychometric properties of Carver’s (1997) Brief COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced), extending its cross-cultural validity among a Portuguese sample of community and at-risk parents. The sample comprised community (n = 153) and at-risk (n = 116) parents who completed the brief COPE, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales and the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form. Confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, cross sample invariance, convergent and discriminant validity were analysed. Data from the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 14-factor model obtained the best fit. The results provided evidence that the Brief COPE is a psychometrically sound instrument that shows measurement invariance across samples and good reliability. Our findings demonstrated that the Portuguese version of brief COPE is a useful, time-efficient tool for both practitioners and researchers who need to assess coping strategies, a relevant construct in family context.

A Comprehensive Review and Bifactor Modeling Analysis of the Brief COPE

“…These results support the psychometrically-sound original scale, 1 as well as translated versions using the same factor structure. 16,28,34,39,41,45,50,57 Current results also support specifically those from Marôco et al 45 and Nunes et al 28 due to sample characteristics (ie, Portuguese population). Thus, there is evidence that the factor structure of the Brief COPE is suitable and valid for measuring 14 coping strategies, and that measures using alternative factor structure (eg, 3-8 factors) should be revised to explore existing limitations.…”

“… 69 We considered the Robust Maximum Likelihood estimator to correct any non-normality bias. As previous theoretical 1 and empirical 16 , 28 , 39 , 45 , 50 , 57 studies gave support for a 14-factor measurement model, we tested the correlated 6-factor model using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Specifically, we tested 3 configurations of the factor structure (correlated 2-, 3-, and 14-factor model), 2 second-order factor structure (correlated 2 and 3 higher order-factor model), and 3 bifactor model specifications, (1, 2, and 3 global factors with 14 specific factors).…”

“…8,[23][24][25] Richards et al 26 pointed out the limitation in their research of lacking convergent and discriminant validity analysis. Additionally, sample size is in some instances too small [27][28][29] to analyze correlations between coping strategies and coping outcomes. 9 Another limitation related to the hierarchical stratification of the coping factors is that there is limited evidence to support it.…”

How Do Polish Students Manage Emotional Distress during the COVID-19 Lockdown? A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…The test sheet is available on the website of the Psychological Test Laboratory at www.practest.com.pl; it is free to download and use for research purposes. There are many different interpretations of the Brief-COPE scale [41][42][43]. We decided to use the concept most commonly applied in the Polish adaptation of the Brief-COPE scale [37].…”

The enrich marital satisfaction scale: Adaptation and psychometric properties among at-risk and community Portuguese parents

“…Studies have pointed out that, compared to parents from community population, in at psychosocial risk contexts, parental sense of competence can be different (Nunes & Ayala-Nunes, 2017), and at-risk parents can perceive more stress and be more dissatisfied in performing their role, but cumulatively have a distorted self-evaluation and assess themselves as more competent. These can be due to the fact that when in very stressful environments, parents tend to consider daily situations in an automatic and plain way, have fewer self-correction systems (Nunes et al, 2021b) and minimize the barriers and constrains faced. Although they activate these strategies, the stress experienced can cause strong effects on socioemotional and behaviour features in the children (Konishi et al, 2018), and therefore the child can be perceived as difficult.…”