The purpose of this study was to determine the factorial structure of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire for African American women. A sample of 656 African American women living in the southeastern United States, ranging in age from 22 to 64 years (M = 39.6 years), completed the questionnaire.
All were employed, with a mean annual income of $24,300. Factor analysis produced three factors, Active Coping, Avoidance, and Minimize the Situation, that accounted 67% of the total variance. These factors were compared with the eight factors of the Ways of Coping questionnaire reported byFolkman and Lazarus (1980), which was derived from a sample of middle-aged White subjects. The factors that emerged suggest the need for possible revision of the instrument or the development of a new one. © Lippincott-Raven Publishers.
Coping was a topic that stimulated a lot of interest in psychological research during the 1960s’ and 1970s’. Folkman and Lazarus ( ) recognized the need for further systematic work in order to understand how coping could operate as a between and psychosocial well-being.
The coping measurement was also an issue of great importance. These authors did not conceptualize coping as a defensive ego process or as a personality stable trait. They conceptualized coping as a situation-specific concept, namely, as specific thoughts and acts an individual uses to cope with when a stressful life event occurs.Folkman and Lazarus ( ) developed a checklist consisting of “items from the domains of defensive coping (e.g., avoidance, intellectualization.