COPE Inventory

Abstract

The COPE Inventory is a comprehensive, multidimensional self-report measure designed to assess the diverse ways in which individuals respond to stress and difficult life events. Developed by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub (1989), the inventory is structured around 15 distinct scales, each consisting of four items, totaling 60 items. These scales capture a wide range of theoretical coping strategies, broadly categorized into problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and responses considered less useful or potentially maladaptive.

The COPE Inventory avoids generating a single “overall” coping score, instead emphasizing the separate analysis of each of the 15 dimensions to provide a nuanced profile of an individual’s behavioral and cognitive reactions to stressors. This approach allows researchers to examine the specific relationships between distinct coping efforts and other psychological variables.

Keywords

Coping, Stress, Psychological assessment, Problem-focused coping, Emotion-focused coping, Multidimensional inventory, Carver, Psychometrics.

Authors

Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., Weintraub, J. K.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the COPE Inventory is to serve as a detailed and theoretically grounded measure of coping. It aims to quantify the specific cognitive and behavioral strategies utilized by individuals when they encounter stressful or challenging circumstances in their lives.

The measure moves beyond simple binary classifications of adaptive versus maladaptive coping by providing 15 separate scores, allowing for fine-grained analysis of the complex interplay of coping mechanisms. This structure is essential for research investigating how different types of coping predict outcomes across various domains, such as health, adjustment, and performance.

Construct

The COPE Inventory is designed to measure coping strategies, which are defined as the behavioral and psychological efforts made to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize internal or external demands that are taxing or exceeding the resources of the person. The 15 scales are theoretically organized into three broad categories:

• Problem-Focused Coping (5 scales): These efforts are aimed at managing or altering the problem causing the distress. Scales include active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, and seeking of instrumental social support.
• Emotion-Focused Coping (5 scales): These efforts are directed at regulating the emotional response to the stressor. Scales include seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation and growth, acceptance, denial, and turning to religion.
• Less Useful/Maladaptive Responses (5 scales): These include strategies that may be less effective or detrimental to long-term adjustment, such as focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, substance use, and humor.

Validity

While the source content does not provide explicit details on specific validity studies (e.g., criterion or predictive validity), the design of the COPE Inventory is rooted in established psychological theory regarding approach and avoidance coping mechanisms, suggesting strong theoretical and construct validity. The original 1989 article by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub provides empirical evidence supporting the theoretical distinctiveness of the 15 scales.

Researchers are encouraged to consult the key reference to understand the factor structure that validates the separation of these 15 scales, which are intended to measure conceptually distinct aspects of responding to stress, rather than simply measuring a single, unitary coping ability.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the COPE Inventory scales was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients across the 15 scales. The reported range for alpha values was substantial, spanning from .37 to .93. The average internal consistency reliability across all scales was reported as .79, indicating generally good reliability.

Specifically, the reliability was high for the majority of the scales, with most alphas exceeding .70. Only one scale, mental disengagement (alpha = .37), fell below the commonly accepted threshold of .60, suggesting that this particular subscale may warrant careful interpretation or further psychometric investigation depending on the specific research population.

Factor Analysis

The COPE Inventory is inherently multidimensional, and its developers explicitly advise against generating an arbitrary “overall” coping index or fixed “adaptive” and “maladaptive” composites. The 15 scales are intended to be examined individually.

However, the authors acknowledge that creating second-order factors from among the 15 primary scales can be a valuable analytic strategy, as detailed in the 1989 foundational paper. If a researcher chooses to use higher-order factors, it is strongly recommended that the composition of these second-order factors be determined empirically using the specific data collected from the sample under study, as different populations may exhibit variations in the interrelations among the coping scales.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Multidimensional coping inventory

Format: 60 items, scored on a 4-point Likert scale.

Language Available: Original development in English. Numerous translations exist, but official source information typically refers to the English version.

Population Group: Clinical and non-clinical populations; generally used with adults.

Age Group: Adults (typically 18+).

Population Details: Originally validated on undergraduate students, but widely used across diverse adult populations facing various stressors (e.g., illness, academic pressure, bereavement).

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate what they usually do or feel when they experience stressful events, using a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (I usually don’t do this at all) to 4 (I usually do this a lot).

Keywords

Psychology, Coping mechanisms, Problem-focused, Emotion-focused, Psychological measure, Self-report, Cronbach’s alpha, Stress management, Assessment tool.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact information generally available via the University of Miami Department of Psychology (C. S. Carver).

Correspondence Address: Contact C. S. Carver, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1989 (Publication of foundational paper).

Permissions: The COPE Inventory is generally available for non-commercial research use; however, users should always consult the author’s official webpage for the most current guidelines regarding usage and licensing.

Fee: Information not provided in source content. Typically free for academic research use but requires permission.

Reference’s

Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267-283. (This is the primary reference for the COPE Inventory.)

Items of the COPE Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

We are interested in how people respond when they confront difficult or stressful events in their lives. There are lots of ways to try to deal with stress. This questionnaire asks you to indicate what you generally do and feel, when you experience stressful events. Obviously, different events bring out somewhat different responses, but think about what you usually do when you are under a lot of stress.

Then respond to each of the following items by blackening one number on your answer sheet for each, using the response choices listed just below. Please try to respond to each item separately in your mind from each other item. Choose your answers thoughtfully, and make your answers as true FOR YOU as you can. Please answer every item. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers, so choose the most accurate answer for YOU–not what you think “most people” would say or do. Indicate what YOU usually do when YOU experience a stressful event.

• 1 = I usually don’t do this at all
• 2 = I usually do this a little bit
• 3 = I usually do this a medium amount
• 4 = I usually do this a lot

1. I try to grow as a person as a result of the experience.
2. I turn to work or other substitute activities to take my mind off things.
3. I get upset and let my emotions out.
4. I try to get advice from someone about what to do.
5. I concentrate my efforts on doing something about it.
6. I say to myself “this isn’t real.”
7. I put my trust in God.
8. I laugh about the situation.
9. I admit to myself that I can’t deal with it, and quit trying.
10. I restrain myself from doing anything too quickly.
11. I discuss my feelings with someone.
12. I use alcohol or drugs to make myself feel better.
13. I get used to the idea that it happened.
14. I talk to someone to find out more about the situation.
15. I keep myself from getting distracted by other thoughts or activities.
16. I daydream about things other than this.
17. I get upset, and am really aware of it.
18. I seek God’s help.
19. I make a plan of action.
20. I make jokes about it.
21. I accept that this has happened and that it can’t be changed.
22. I hold off doing anything about it until the situation permits.
23. I try to get emotional support from friends or relatives.
24. I just give up trying to reach my goal.
25. I take additional action to try to get rid of the problem.
26. I try to lose myself for a while by drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
27. I refuse to believe that it has happened.
28. I let my feelings out.
29. I try to see it in a different light, to make it seem more positive.
30. I talk to someone who could do something concrete about the problem.
31. I sleep more than usual.
32. I try to come up with a strategy about what to do.
33. I focus on dealing with this problem, and if necessary let other things slide a little.
34. I get sympathy and understanding from someone.
35. I drink alcohol or take drugs, in order to think about it less.
36. I kid around about it.
37. I give up the attempt to get what I want.
38. I look for something good in what is happening.
39. I think about how I might best handle the problem.
40. I pretend that it hasn’t really happened.
41. I make sure not to make matters worse by acting too soon.
42. I try hard to prevent other things from interfering with my efforts at dealing with this.
43. I go to movies or watch TV, to think about it less.
44. I accept the reality of the fact that it happened.
45. I ask people who have had similar experiences what they did.
46. I feel a lot of emotional distress and I find myself expressing those feelings a lot.
47. I take direct action to get around the problem.
48. I try to find comfort in my religion.
49. I force myself to wait for the right time to do something.
50. I make fun of the situation.
51. I reduce the amount of effort I’m putting into solving the problem.
52. I talk to someone about how I feel.
53. I use alcohol or drugs to help me get through it.
54. I learn to live with it.
55. I put aside other activities in order to concentrate on this.
56. I think hard about what steps to take.
57. I act as though it hasn’t even happened.
58. I do what has to be done, one step at a time.
59. I learn something from the experience.
60. I pray more than usual.

Scales (sum items listed, with no reversals of coding):

• Positive reinterpretation and growth: 1, 29, 38, 59
• Mental disengagement: 2, 16, 31, 43
• Focus on and venting of emotions: 3, 17, 28, 46
• Use of instrumental social support: 4, 14, 30, 45
• Active coping: 5, 25, 47, 58
• Denial: 6, 27, 40, 57
• Religious coping: 7, 18, 48, 60
• Humor: 8, 20, 36, 50
• Behavioral disengagement: 9, 24, 37, 51
• Restraint: 10, 22, 41, 49
• Use of emotional social support: 11, 23, 34, 52
• Substance use: 12, 26, 35, 53
• Acceptance: 13, 21, 44, 54
• Suppression of competing activities: 15, 33, 42, 55
• Planning: 19, 32, 39, 56