We developed a muRidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people
respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure conceptually distinct aspects of problemfocused
coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking
of instrumental social support); five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotionfocused
coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial,
turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus
on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement). Study 1 reports the
development of scale items. Study 2 reports correlations between the various coping scales and several
theoretically relevant personality measures in an effort to provide preliminary information
about the inventory's convergent and discriminant validity, Study 3 uses the inventory to assess
coping responses among a group of undergraduates who were attempting to cope with a specific
stressful episode. This study also allowed an initial examination of associations between dispositional
and situational coping tendencies.