Sources of Stress and Perceived Coping Efficacy
The Perceived Coping Competence and Efficacy Assessment (PCCEA,
Lavoie, 2010)was used to identify sources of perceived stress and coping
efficacy. In part A of the assessment, respondents were asked to describe
in their own words the most stressful event or situation that they
encountered over the past 4 weeks. In part B, respondents answered
eight questions about their perceived coping efficacy in responding to the
described situation (e.g., I handled the situation well given the
circumstances) by rating their agreement on a five-point Likert scale
(1 = very much disagree, 5=very much agree). A description of the
development of this scale, and factor analysis for the PCCEA-B derived
froma preliminary sample of discharged psychiatric patients supporting
a single dimension ofmeasurement can be found in Lavoie.Higher scores
indicated greater perceived coping abilities. PCCEA-B scores were
aggregated to generate a total score. Themean PCCEA-B scoremeasured
at baseline was 24.96 (SD = 7.68). Perceived coping efficacy did not
differ between males and females [t(89.26) = 0.981, P = ns]. The
PPCEA-B had good internal reliability (α = .863).