Development of a dispositional version of the General Coping Questionnaire (GCQ) and examination of its reliability and validity

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to develop a dispositional version of a stress coping scale (the General Coping Questionnaire, GCQ), especially for university students, and examine its reliability and validity. METHODS: In Studies I to IV, 124, 784, 83, 83 university students respectively completed the dispositional version of the GCQ. The questionnaire has four subscales covering emotion expression, emotional support seeking, cognitive reinterpretation, and problem solving, with a five-point Likert format. In Study IV, in addition to the dispositional version of the GCQ, peer rating was also performed to test the validity. RESULTS: In Study I, 32 items were selected as a second version of the scale, reducing from the first version with 54 items. From Studies II to IV, evidence was obtained for the factorial validity, the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability, the construct validity (except cognitive reinterpretation), and the normal distribution of the scores. CONCLUSIONS: Standardization of the dispositional version of the GCQ with four subscales was essentially completed, facilitating future studies on coping with stress.