Prior to exploring these relationships, we followed the recommendation of Carver (2007) and explored the reliability of the Brief COPE in our sample. Consistent with Cooper et al. (2008) the present study supported a three factor structure for the Brief COPE, with factors reflecting problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and avoidant coping. While there were some inconsistencies in terms of which items were observed to load on each factor, the general consistency in the factor structure is reassuring. In a field notorious for unreliable measurement of constructs, our three factor solution compares well with both theoretical and empirical coping research (Parker & Endler,1992), strengthening the confidence in the current findings.