Initial extraction revealed nine factorswith eigen values greater than
1, however examination of the scree plot and eigen values suggested a
three factor solution, with three factors displaying eigen values greater
than 2. A three-factor solutionwas requestedwhich accounted for 38.7%
of variance in the data. Five items refused to load on any factor. After
removing these items and again requesting a three-factor solution a parsimonious factor structure emerged, which accounted for 44.51% of the variance. Consistentwith previous literature, the resultant structure comprised factors representing problem focused coping, emotion focused coping and avoidant coping (see Table 1). This factor solution
was utilised for all remaining analyses.