Psychometric assessment of the Jalowiec Coping Scale

The Jalowiec Coping Scale consists of 40 coping behaviors culled from a comprehensive literature review, which are rated on a 1- to 5-point scale to indicate degree of use. Twenty judges classified the items to permit analysis of the coping behaviors according to a problem-oriented/affective-oriented dichotomy; 15 problem and 25 affective items resulted. Overall agreement by the judges was 85%, with greater consensus on problem items. Evaluation of stability using a two-week retest interval (N = 28) yielded significant rhos of .79 for total coping scores, .85 for problem, and .86 for affective. With a one-month interval (N = 30) coefficients were .78, .84, and .83, respectively. Alpha reliability coefficients of .86 (N = 141) and .85 (N = 150) supported instrument homogeneity. Content validity is substantiated by the systematic manner of tool development, by the large number of items used, and by the inclusion of diverse coping behaviors. Factor analysis (N = 141) was used to investigate construct validity. A two-factor solution to evaluate the validity of the dichotomous classification showed that 80% of the problem items loaded on Factor I, but only 56% of the affective items loaded on Factor II. To examine this multidimensional aspect, several other factor solutions were explored. Ultimately, the four-factor solution provided the most intelligible conceptual pattern with the least loss of information. Conceptual composition of these factors is discussed, and several tentative labels for each factor are suggested.