The kids coping scale.

The measurement of stress and coping in adolescents has received some attention; however, the understanding and development of measures of how children cope has not kept pace. This study reports the conceptual development and psychometric properties of the Kids Coping Scale (KCS), a brief self-report measure of problem, emotion and social support coping dimensions. Participants were 834 children aged 7–13 years of whom 390 were male (48.6 per cent) with a mean age of 9.88 years and 415 were female (49.6 per cent) with a mean age of 9.87 years. Principal components analysis did not support a hypothesized three-factor structure; however a clear two-factor structure (cross-validated) distinguishing problem and emotion-focused coping actions did emerge. The KCS returned low to moderate levels of internal consistency and low to moderate correlations with other relevant constructs (e.g. self esteem, parent responded strengths and difficulties). The findings highlight a clear problem- and emotion-focused structure in a brief measure considered suitable for children 7 years and above. Weaknesses of the scale are outlined along with implications for the future developments to the KCS being identified. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]