Validation of the Coping with Stress Questionnaire (CSQ) for its use in the Spanish elderly population

Lazarus and Folkman (1984) defined coping as a cognitive and behavioural effort to deal with internal and/or external demands that exceed individual’s resources. These authors also defined two types of coping: problem-focused, which is directed at taking steps to remove or to evade the stressor, and emotion-focused, which is aimed at minimizing distress triggered by stressors (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Aldwin & Revenson, 1987). These dimensions, in turn, may be divided into several coping strategies, which finally define the items in the coping scales. The current study validates the Coping with Stress Questionnaire (Cuestionario de afrontamiento del estrés, CAE; Sandín & Chorot, 2003). An overall result of the research is that this scale has good psychometric properties to be used in the elderly Spanish population. The homogeneity of items and reliability of dimensions were adequate. The confirmatory factor analysis on the items revealed a good model fit, while the dimensions related to criteria as expected. Therefore, it can be concluded that CAE is a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure coping strategies in the elderly.