Development of a shortened form of the Coping Responses Inventory-Youth with an Australian sample

The 48-item Coping Responses Inventory-Youth (CRI-Youth; Moos, 1993) measures coping strategies used by adolescents in response to stressful life circumstances. This study tested the underlying structure of the CRI-Youth in an Australian adolescent sample to examine the crosscultural relevance of the scale. Results of the principal component analysis were also used to develop a shortened version of the CRI-Youth. The data came from 303 children aged between 11 to 16 years. Exploratory principal component analyses revealed that a four component model was the best fit for the data with components labeled as: Cognitive Avoidance and Emotional Expression; Logical Analysis and Problem Solving; Seeking Support and Guidance; Seeking Alternative Rewards. Through an iterative process, the resulting solution included 21 items that corresponded to the breakdown of approach and avoidance factors of the original scale. The total shortened CRI-Youth and four components had sound intemal consistencies, which compared favorably to Moos' (1993) subscales and total scale reliability coefficients. Gender differences were evident on the shortened scale, with girls showing higher overall usage of coping responses than boys, and on all components except Seeking Altemative Rewards.