
Interpretation by way of normative percentile helps contextualise results in comparison to typical responses of regular individuals. Scores are presented for three overarching coping styles as average scores (sum of item scores divided by number of items), indicating the degree to which the respondent has been engaging in that coping style.Ī normative percentile is presented based on data from a non-clinical sample of athletes (Poulus et al., 2020). For more information on the NovoPsych norms, see here. In addition, NovoPsych ( Hegarty & Buchanan, 2021) compiled a sample of responses from patients receiving psychological intervention in outpatient settings (n = 3635) to produce normative data for use in computing clinical percentiles. This data is used to compute percentile ranks, indicating the typical range of scores for non-clinical respondents. (2020) validated the scale among 316 esports athletes and found the following means and standard deviations for each subscale. The three factor model is used for scoring purposes within NovoPsych. (2012) divided the scale into three factors (1) Problem-focused coping, (2) Emotion-focused coping, and (3) Avoidant coping. A study with heart failure patients (Eisenberg et al., 2012) indicated two major factors: (1) Avoidant Coping, and (2) Approach Coping. Two alternative ways of delineating factors have been reported in the literature. The Brief-COPE was initially validated on a 168 participant community sample who had been impacted by a hurricane (Carver, 1997). The Brief-Cope was developed as a short version of the original 60-item COPE scale (Carver et al., 1989), which was theoretically derived based on various models of coping. In addition, the following facets of coping are reported: Self-distraction, Denial, Substance Use, Behavioural disengagement, Emotional Support, Venting, Humour, Acceptance, Self-Blame, Religion, Active Coping, Use of Instrumental Support, Positive Reframing, and Planning. The scale can determine someone’s primary coping styles with scores on the following three subscale: The scale is useful in counselling settings for formulating the helpful and unhelpful ways someone responds to stressors. It can be be used to measure how someone is coping with a wide range of adversity, including a cancer diagnosis, heart failure, injuries, assaults, natural disasters, financial stress or mental illness. The scale is often used in health-care settings to ascertain how patients are emotionally responding to a serious circumstance. “Coping” is defined broadly as an effort used to minimise distress associated with negative life experiences. The Brief-COPE is a 28 item self-report questionnaire designed to measure effective and ineffective ways to cope with a stressful life event.
