Coping strategies as indicators of resilience in elderly subjects: a methodological study

Coping strategies as components of resilience among the elderly serve three purposes: protection against threats to adaptation, recovery from the effects of adversity, and personal development. The present paper aims to investigate internal and external validity for a coping inventory. 415 elderly subjects (aged 65 and older) answered questions that measure coping, depression, self-rated health and satisfaction with life. Scores were compared with each other as well as according to gender, age and income. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency analysis were conducted. Three factors explained 30.8% of the variance: 1. non-adaptive strategies, 2.adaptive strategies, and 3. development strategies. The scale showed moderate internal consistency (α = 0.541). Development strategies were positively correlated with self-rated health and with satisfaction with life, and negatively correlated with depression (p < 0.05). The explained variance and internal validity were moderate, possibly because the coping inventory does not reflect specific situations of old age, and also because of the complexity of strategy-context relationships, among other reasons. Correlations found with other indicators of resilience encourage further studies.