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The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ; Folkman & Lazarus, 1985) remains one of the widely used measures of self-report coping behaviours, despite an acknowledgement of its relatively poor psychometric properties. In contrast, the Cybernetic coping scale (CCS; Edwards & Baglioni, 1993) appears to have improved psychometric characteristics, but is scarcely employed within published research. To examine the factor structure and criterion validity of the CCS, a longitudinal study was conducted using a diverse sample of New Zealand employees from a range of organizations. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the CCS was found to have construct validity over time. However, a 14-item CCS model produced the best goodness-of-fit and improved item properties. The implications of this improved CCS are discussed in terms of longitudinal research designs, and the necessity for the inclusion of robust self-report coping measures.
A variety of self-report measures have been developed to assess coping behaviours. Within the occupational well-being arena, the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) developed by Lazarus, Folkman et al. (e.g. Folkman & Lazarus, 1980) is a widely used instrument. The WCC was subsequently revised into the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), via a modification of both the scale items and the response format (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985). Despite substantial deficiencies identified by subsequent authors (e.g. Stone, Greenberg, Kennedy-Moore, & Newman, 1991), use of the WCQ remains widespread and is often attributed to what Snyder (1999) terms the 'instrument effect'. That is, the appeal of the WCQ is strongly influenced by its ease of administration and analysis, its applicability to a variety of stress situations (such as traumatic, personal, and work-based events), and its useful problem/emotion-focused taxonomy. The actual validity of the measurement instrument may be overshadowed by such beneficial practical considerations. In fact, the WCQ has become a popular measure with researchers despite published theoretical and empirical criticisms of this instrument (Aldwin, 1994). In an evaluation of the robustness of the WCQ and comparison with an alternative instrument, Edwards and Baglioni (1993) found little support for both the construct validity and internal reliabilities of the WCQ. In addition, these authors found that about half of the factor loadings for the WCQ fell below minimal acceptable levels.
A number of other coping scales have been developed along similar lines to...