Évaluation multidimensionnelle du coping: Validation du Brief COPE sur une population française

International audienceThis article aims to introduce the translation and the validation of a multidimensional measure of coping strategies: the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997), among French population. The coping concept comes from psychologi- cal studies that were conducted on stress. Regarding the conceptual analysis of stress by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), coping works with two cognitive appraisals performed by the person concerning the perception of a threa- tening situation and his or her available resources to deal with it, and it is defined as "cognitive and behavioural efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the internal and/or external demands that are created by the stressful transac- tion".The Brief COPE is the abridged version of the COPE inventory (Carver and al., 1989) and presents fourteen scales all assessing different coping dimensions: (1) active coping, (2) planning, (3) using instrumental support, (4) using emotional support, (5) venting, (6) behavioural disengagement, (7) self-distraction, (8) self-blame, (9) posi- tive reframing, (10) humor, (11) denial, (12) acceptance, (13) religion, and (14) substance use. Each scale contains two items (28 altogether). By assessing a lot of coping dimensions and by using the least items, this inventory has the advantage to be built from acknowledged theoretical models (Lazarus' transactional model of stress, 1984, behavioral self-regulation model, Carver and Scheier, 1981, 1998) and to be aiming at assessing trait coping (deal- ing with the usual way people cope with stress in everyday life) and state coping (dealing with the particular way people cope with a specific prone to stress situation).As for the COPE inventory, the Brief COPE is a measure used for many health-relevant studies: drugs addiction, ageing, breast cancer, depression, AIDS ... Both measures are widely used in Anglophone countries and trans- lated in many languages. Today, the COPE inventory has been validated among Estonian, Croatian, Chinese, and Italian populations and the Brief COPE is also validated among Spanish people. Thus, the worldwide use of this coping inventory should allow a broadcast and a comparison of medical and psychological research for coping strategies regarding every kind of pathologies. By acknowledging this, we were led to present the translation and the validation of this measure among French population.Two studies are presented in this article: the first one describes the validation of the inventory in a dispositional format (trait coping) and the second one the validation of the inventory in a situational format (state coping). The French version of Brief COPE, which was used for both studies, was back-translated and analysed by the Brief COPE author: Charles S. Carver.For study 1, 834 first year university students answered the Brief COPE in its dispositional format. To study the factor structure of Brief COPE, we followed structural equation modeling and the Lisrel software. Results show that the expected theoretical structure and the observed one fit adequately (χ2 = 606, p 0,95, AGFI > 0,92, RMR < 0,03). In order to study convergent and discriminant validity of Brief COPE, self-esteem (SEI, Rosenberg, 1979), perceived stress (PSS, Cohen and al., 1983), and psychological distress (GHQ-12, Gold- berg, 1972) concepts were used. Results show that functional coping strategies (e.g., active coping) are linked to good self-esteem, to few perceived stress, and to few psychological distress, whereas less functional strategies (e.g., denial or self-blame) are widely linked to feeble self-esteem, to a high perceived stress and to psychological distress. Study 1 shows also several significant gender differences.Study 2 describes Brief COPE validation in its situational format. 178 others students answered this version. The method that was used is the same the one developed by Lazarus and his colleagues for the WCS validation (Folkman and Lazarus, 1980). Participants were asked to recall and think about the most stressful event they had experienced during the past two months. They were also due to give account of described situation mattered to them. They had to evaluate their capacity to control the situation and indicated whether they felt the situation was amenable to change. The study only deals with people haven qualified an event as "important" or "very important". Here again Lisrel was used to study the factor structure of the Brief COPE. Given results emphasise – as in study 1 – that the expected theoretical structure and the observed one fit adequately (χ2 = 391, p < 0,05, RMSEA < 0,05, GFI = 0,87, AGFI = 0,80, RMR < 0,06). Differences means showed how the perceived control of the situation and how the perception of its favourable evolution interfered in the settlement of coping strategies (e.g., humour or denial).Results shown in both studies give account of the good psychometric properties of the Brief COPE in its French version whatever the format (i.e., dispositional or situational). Thus French searchers have a relevant tool on hand to measure as accurately as possible the coping strategies someone used in everyday life (strategies interfering on health, on a long scale), or in distressful situations (e.g., serious illness, traumas). The fact that this easy-to-use coping measure is worldwide spread among medical and psychological studies allows a better broadcast and comparison of results whatever the pathology.Le but de cet article est de présenter la traduction et la validation du BRIEF COPE (5) sur une population fran-çaise. Cet instrument est une version abrégée de l'inventaire COPE (9) et propose 14 échelles évaluant toutes des dimensions distinctes du coping : 1) le coping actif, 2) la planifica-tion, 3) la recherche de soutien social instrumental, 4) la recherche de soutien social émotionnel, 5) l'expression des sentiments, 6) le désengagement comportemental, 7) la distraction , 8) le blâme, 9) la ré-interprétation positive, 10) l'humour, 11) le déni, 12) l'acceptation, 13) la religion, et 14) l'utilisation de substances. Chacune de ces échelles com-prend 2 items (28 items au total). Cet inventaire est construit à partir de modèles théoriques reconnus [modèle transac-tionnel du stress de Lazarus (25) ; modèle d'autorégulation du comportement de Carver et Scheier (6, 7)] et est destiné à une évaluation du coping-trait (prenant en compte la façon habituelle des personnes à faire face aux stresseurs de la vie quotidienne) et du coping-état (prenant en compte la façon particulière des personnes à faire face à une situation stres-sante spécifique). Dans un premier temps (Étude 1), 934 étu-diants de premier cycle universitaire ont répondu au Brief COPE dans son format dispositionnel ainsi qu'au GHQ12 (Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire, 1972), à l'Échelle de Stress Perçu de Cohen (1983) et à l'Échelle d'Estime de Soi de Rosenberg (1979). Puis dans un second temps (Étude 2), la version situationnelle du Brief COPE a été complétée par 250 autres étudiants. Les résultats de ces études de validation sont présentés dans l'article