Measurement of family coping

Three family coping instruments that have been used in cancer nursing research have been discussed and their usefulness for nursing research and practice have been presented. While all three instruments use the parents as the source of information about family coping with cancer, the F-COPES was designed for use with adolescents as well. Use of these instruments with families coping with childhood cancer can increase nursing's knowledge base for practice and provide scientifically sound and clinically relevant measurement.