Brief COPE

What it measures

A 28-item measure of 14 coping strategies, each assessed with 2 items. Covers adaptive (active coping, planning, reframing) and maladaptive (denial, disengagement, self-blame) strategies. The most concise coping inventory relative to breadth of coverage.

Response format

Likert (1–4, I haven't been doing this at all to I've been doing this a lot)

Representative items

• I've been trying to come up with a strategy about what to do. (Planning)
• I've been giving up trying to deal with it. (Behavioural Disengagement)
• I've been saying to myself 'this isn't real'. (Denial)
• I've been accepting the reality of the fact that it has happened. (Acceptance)
• I've been looking for something good in what is happening. (Positive Reframing)

Usage notes & scoring

Freely available from Charles Carver's website. Subscale reliability varies; report Spearman-Brown reliabilities for 2-item subscales. Often analysed by grouping into approach vs. avoidance or adaptive vs. maladaptive coping clusters.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Carver, C.S. (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol's too long: Consider the Brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92–100.

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