The Ways of Coping Checklist: Revision and Psychometric Properties

Abstract

This study examined the psychometric properties of the "original" seven factored scales derived by Aldwin et al. from Folkman and Lazarus' Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL) versus a revised set of scales. Four psychometric properties were examined including the reproducibility of the factor structure of the original scales, the internal consistency reliabilities and intercorrelations of the original and the revised scales, the construct and concurrent validity of the scales, and their relationships to demographic factors. These properties were studied on three distressed samples: 83 psychiatric outpatients, 62 spouses of patients with Alzheimer's disease, and 425 medical students. The revised scales were consistently shown to be more reliable and to share substantially less variance than the original scales across all samples. In terms of construct validity, depression was positively related to the revised Wishful Thinking Scale and negatively related to the revised Problem-Focused Scale consistently across samples. Anxiety was also related to these scales, and in addition, it was positively related to the Seeks Social Support Scale across samples. The Mixed Scale was the only original scale that was consistently related to depression and anxiety across the three samples. Evidence for concurrent validity was provided by the fact that medical students in group therapy had significantly higher original and revised scale scores than students not participating in such groups. Both sets of scales were shown to be generally free of demographic biases.

A Comparison of Psychosocial Outcomes in Elderly Alzheimer Caregivers and Noncaregivers

“…The Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (RWCC)(31)was used to assess a variety of coping strategies. For this scale, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they used 42 coping strategies to manage stress.…”

Cancer patients' desire for psychological support: prevalence and implications for screening patients' psychological needs

“…Each patient completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) [37,38], the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL) [39,40], the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System (CARES) [41,42] and reported their desire for psychological support. Physicians had to report patients' disease-related characteristics.…”

“…The Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL) [40]: The WCCL is a 27-item four-point self-report measure of coping responses consisting of three sub-scales representing the problem-focused, emotion-focused and social-support-seeking types of coping.…”

Central pain due to stroke: cognitive representation and coping according to gender

“…The instruments used in this study were: Mini-Mental State Examination 9 validated for Brazil 10 , in order to assess the presence of cognitive impairment; Structured Clinical Interview for the Brief Psychiatric Scale 11 adapted for the Brazilian population 12 , in order to identify psychotic symptoms; Survey of Demographics and Clinical Data; Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) 13 , in order to measure pain intensity; Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) 14 validated for the Brazilian population 15 , in order to identify depression symptoms; Ways of Coping with Problems Scale (WCPS) 16 adapted for the Brazilian population 17 , composed of 45 items that assess four coping strategies ("Problem-focused coping", "Emotionfocused coping", "Search for religious practices and wishful thinking" and "Search for social support"), and an open question about how the subject does to deal with the pain; and Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) 18 translated into Portuguese 19 , in order to assess perceptions of disease according to five basic components: identity, causes, consequences, evolution, and cure/control. The IPQ-R scale was divided into three fields.…”