The Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Behaviors (A-COPE) is a 54 item self-report questionnaire used to identify coping strategies employed by adolescents.
Overview
A-COPE
Patterson, J. M. & McCubbin, H.I. (1987). Adolescent coping style and behaviors: conceptualizations and measurement. Journal of Adolescence, 10, 153-186. McCubbin, H.I., & Thompson, A.I. (Eds.). (1987). Family assessment inventories for research and practice. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
hamiltonmccubbin@earthlink.net; chipts.ucla.edu/resources
Administration
| Domain | Scale | Sample Item |
|---|---|---|
| never, hardly, sometimes, often, most of the time | When you face difficulties or feel tense, how often do you use drugs prescribed by a doctor? | |
| never, hardly, sometimes, often, most of the time | When you face difficulties or feel tense, how often do you talk to your mother about what bothers you? | |
| never, hardly, sometimes, often, most of the time | When you face difficulties or feel tense, how often do you go to church? |
Parallel or Alternate Forms
A revised version of the A-Cope was developed (A-Cope-S). This version consists of 28 items forming 6 subscales with moderate to acceptable homogeneity. Findings suggest that the A-Cope-S is suitable for studying coping among Swedish adolescent girls.
Translations
Pros & Cons/References
- A comprehensive self-report questionnaire investigating coping skills.
- The items are short and easy to understand.
- Has been used with diverse populations, and versions (altered) exist in multiple languages including Spanish and Chinese.
- Although the measure is often scored differently across studies, examinations of correlations with A-COPE-derived scales generally seem to be showing that the items are tapping important aspects of adolescent coping.
- The measure is free.
- The A-COPE appears to have been scored differently. depending on the study and population. People do not appear to adhere to single standard for scoring the measure. Thus, while the measure taps important constructs, it is difficult to use the measure to compare across studies and to even know how to score the measure.
- Test-retest reliability has not yet been established.
- As the original A-COPE was developed based on junior and senior high school students, some researchers (Copeland & Hess, 1995) suggest creating a separate factor structure for early adolescents for better understanding of how coping changes through adolescence and for greater specificity.
Dr. Patterson provided comment on the review. Dr. Hamilton could not be contacted.