The Brief COPE: Factor Structure and Associations With Self- and Other-Directed Aggression Among Emerging Adults

Abstract

The Brief COPE has seen frequent use across populations despite lack of confirmatory factor-analytic examination. We further examine Brief COPE validity with respect to self- and other-directed aggression because emerging adulthood represents a distinct developmental time period in which stress, poor coping, and aggression intersect. Drawing on archival data ( n = 576) from a larger investigation of college student health, this cross-sectional survey study tested (1) four competing Brief COPE factor structures, (2) Brief COPE factor associations with aggression, and (3) stress by coping interactions predicting aggression outcomes. Prominent findings included (1) poor-to-marginal confirmatory factor-analytic support for a four-factor structure; (2) positive bivariate associations of avoidant coping with elevated stress, depression, suicide, self-injury, and aggression; (3) positive bivariate associations between adaptive coping strategies with stress and aggression; and (4) an interaction where avoidant coping has a stronger association with other-directed aggression for those low in stress. The interaction findings were significant for males only and applied specifically to hostility. Findings are contextualized within future Brief COPE research as well as emerging adulthood theory.

Coping Strategies and Suicidality: A Cross-Sectional Study From China

“…The Brief COPE scale helped articulate the coping strategies that the students preferred/applied; however, it is not necessarily comparable with other studies that used different coping scales. Furthermore, the cross-sectional nature of the study limits the analyses to the association between coping styles and suicidality, and does not allow us to determine causality, and we cannot present the effectiveness of each coping strategy (51). It is also important to note that we merged suicidality as measured by SBQ-R, and therefore it may not be applicable specifically to the risk of suicide attempts or suicides.…”

Coping Strategies and Life Satisfaction among Romanian Emerging Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In addition, extensive literature exists in which the factoriability of short versions of COPE was explored. For example, a two-factor model was confirmed in [47,48]; a threefactor model was found in [36,[49][50][51][52][53]; a five-factor model was found in [54]; a six-factor model was confirmed in [55]; a seven-factor model-in [56]; an eight-factor model was found in [57]; a nine-factor model was found in [58], while an fourteen-factor structure was proposed in the brief version of COPE [31].…”

“…Religion, for example, was reported by several scholars, as a fluid construct, loading either to avoidant coping types [34] or approach coping types [35]. In addition to the influence of the binaries of avoidant-approach [31] and of problem -emotion focus coping, [33] we also draw from the literature on coping strategies where similar dichotomic coping paradigms are presented, such as negative/disengaged versus positive/active coping [36]; adaptive (with active coping, positive reframing, use of emotional support, acceptance, religion, humor, planning, and use of instrumental support) versus maladaptive coping behaviors (with venting, denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, selfdistraction, and self-blame) [37]; active (positive) versus passive (avoidant) coping [38].…”

“…Various versions of COPE questionnaires have been tested in various fields of clinical and medical practice and were found to have great flexibility and generalizability of application among populations exposed to different stressors, including at-risk youth and emerging adults. For example, researchers have addressed coping strategies among young populations, applying diverse versions of Brief COPE in emerging adult samples [36,39], in university or college student samples [34,[40][41][42], and among children and adolescents [43]. However, very few studies have assessed coping behaviors during COVID-19 lockdown [44][45][46], and none (to the best of our knowledge) have addressed coping mechanisms in relation to positive youth development in Romania during the first wave of coronavirus restrictions.…”

Using Mixed Methods to Assess the Coping and Self-regulation Skills of Undergraduate Social Work Students Impacted by COVID-19

“…This abbreviated inventory of the complete 60-item COPE Inventory (Carver et al 1989) reliably assessed the frequency with which different coping strategies were used, rated on a scale from 1, ("I haven't been doing this at all") to 4, ("I've been doing this a lot"). The brief COPE has been used extensively to assess coping, and found to be a reliable and valid measure with college students overall (Cramer et al 2020;Flynn et al 2020), including those in allied professions such as nursing (Ab Latif and Mat Nor 2016) and pharmacy (Garber 2017). Carver (1997) designed the brief COPE to assess 14 distinct domains, warning against combining them into an overall measure unless indicated by analysis of individual data using reliability testing and/or factor analyses.…”