Kwestionariusz Reakcji na Codzienne Wydarzenia

[The Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI): Polish Version]

Helena Sęk, Tomasz Pasikowski,  Steffen Taubert,  Esther Greenglass, & Ralf Schwarzer, 2002

Poniższe punkty zawierają stwierdzenia opisujące Pani/Pana reakcje w różnych sytuacjach. Proszę ocenić każde z nich z własnego punktu widzenia poprzez zaznaczenie odpowiedniego kwadratu. 

              Nigdy = 1        Czasem = 2     Czesto = 3    Zawsze = 4
 

THE PROACTIVE COPING INVENTORY - POLISH ADAPTATION

 Tomasz Pasikowski[1], Helena Sęk¹, Esther Greenglass[2] & Steffen Taubert[3]

 Introduction

 Stressful life events may be considered from the point of view of both a patogenic and a salutogenic model. In specific circumstances they may constitute serious factors of the risk of disturbances, but they may also be natural experiments of development. Which of these two functions will prevail, depends on the evaluation of these events as well as on ways of coping.

            Among life events one may distinguish such which are described as normative. They are included in the life span of all people and they constitute turning points in the developmental changes. They occur in basic spheres of our life and activity and require readjustment in our private, family and professional life. They bring great stress, but the most important thing about them is that such events as starting school, setting up a family, child birth, retirement, etc. are predictable, therefore it is possible to prepare for them in advance.

            Apart from normative events one may also distinguish stress connected with purposeful life activities, e.g. health care behavior. This includes periodic medical tests (e.g. gynecological or dental) and necessary medical interventions. Life events connected with health may also be prepared for in order to control excessive stress and overcome it in the course of life.

            Knowing risk factors of health and well-being may also be conducive to the formation of anticipatory and preventive coping. Therefore, the theory of proactive coping with stress (Schwarzer, Taubert, 1999, Greenglass, Schwarzer, Jakubiec, Fiksenbaum, Taubert, 1999) applies to numerous stressful events.

            Coping directed to events with various probability of future occurence may be of preventive and proactive character. Preventive coping goals are negative because one wants to avoid dangers by developing certain preventive resources. In proactive coping one pursues positive goals, constructs plans of action and promotes development and health. Proactive coping may also be considered as a constituent of life style creation (Sęk, 2000). Moreover, Schwarzer and Taubert (1999) believe that proactive persons rely on values and visions in individual creation of life plans.

            Proactive coping has been studied by means of a specifically created scale which has been verified in cross-cultural research (Greenglas et al, 2000). It has been stated that proactive coping is connected with various measures of effective coping, control, well-being and depression level.

            The present research refers to these results. Its aims are:

1. Adapting Proactive Coping Inventory to Polish conditions and checking its psychometric indicators.

2. Examining the connection between proactive coping tendency, subjectively perceived health level in somatic, psychological and social sense as well as negative health indicators, i. e. the lack or intensification of depression level.

Method

Subjects

The similarity to the original Canadian sample was the guiding principle for us during the stage of choosing a new Polish sample. The PCI items were generated on a Canadian student sample which was recruited for the survey during class. Age ranged from 17 to 60 years old. The majority of respondents were women. The first Polish-Canadian sample was older, employed, and consisted of immigrants so the differences between the two Canadian samples were significant. The present Polish sample consisted of 220 university students (193 females and 27 males). Age ranged from 19 to 50, mean age was 25,19.

Measures

Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI) was the main psychometric tool in the present study. PCI is the multidimensional inventory consisting of a total 55 items grouped in the seven subscales. They are: the Proactive Coping Scale, the Reflective Coping Scale, Strategic Planning, Preventive Coping, Instrumental Support Seeking, Emotional Support Seeking, and Avoidance Coping.

We prepared a new Polish translation of the scale because some items were not satisfactory in the previous version. The couple of competent judges evaluated every item and that was the base for choosing items to the final version.

The Subjective Health Profile (SHP) is a self-reported instrument developed by H. Sęk (2000). It assesses the subjective sense of health in the psychological, social and physical dimensions. In addition, it assesses the beliefs of an individual about the resources he or she has. The four scales consist of  24 items.

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used as a measure of depression. It consisted of 21 items.

Results

The psychometric properties of the PCI

The psychometric properties of the PCI were assessed by means of SPSS 8.0 PL. At the very beginning we will present results referring to the reliability of the PCI subscales. The reliabilities were assessed as internal consistency with Cronbach alpha model. A summary of the main findings is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. The reliabilities of the PCI subscales.

Polish

As it was shown in Table 1 reliabilities of the subscale ranged from .67 to .87 and were moderately acceptable. The values of Cronbach alpha are comparable in all three samples. Generally, the indices we have obtained in the present study are a little bit higher than in the previous one. It seems to support the idea that (1) PCI is consistent cross-culturally, and (2) the Polish adaptation is correct.

            The next step is focused on the detailed description and analysis of PCI items. Tables 2-8 present items of the subscales and scale characteristics.

Table 2. The Proactive Coping Scale

21

The Proactive Coping Scale. This scale combines autonomous goal setting with self-regulatory goal attainment cognitions and behavior. Item-total correlations ranged from .40 to .61 in the Canadian sample. Here the lowest value was obtained for item 43.

Table 3.  The Reflective Coping Scale

The Reflective Coping Scale. This scale describes simulation and contemplation about a variety of possible behavioral alternatives by comparing their imagined effectiveness and includes brainstorming, analyzing problems and resources, and generating hypothetical plans of action. Item-total correlations are a little bit higher than in the original sample where they ranged from .31 to .55.

Table 4. The Strategic Planning Scale

Strategic Planning. This scale focuses on the process of generating a goal-oriented schedule of action in which extensive tasks are broken down into manageable components. Item-total correlations are similar to the Canadian sample where they ranged from .41 to .63.

Table 5. The Preventive Coping Scale

Preventive Coping. Preventive coping deals with anticipation of potential stressors and the initiation of preparation before these stressors develop fully. Preventive coping is distinct from proactive coping. Preventive coping effort refers to a potential threat in future by considering experience, anticipation or knowledge. In comparison, proactive coping is not based on threat but is driven by goal striving. The three of the subscale’s items show lower than .40 value of item-total correlation but their exclusion does not cause the increasing Cronbach alpha for that scale.

Table 6. The Instrumental Support Seeking Scale

Instrumental Support Seeking. This scale focuses on obtaining advice, information and feedback from people in one’s social network when dealing with stressors. There is a problem with item 25. The item-total correlation is very low for it. It lowers somewhat the reliability index for the scale, which is 0.81.

Table 7. The Emotional Support Seeking Scale

Emotional Support Seeking. This scale is aimed at regulating temporary emotional distress by disclosing to others feelings, evoking empathy and seeking companionship from one’s social network. It is emotional self-regulation with the assistance of significant others. The Emotional Support Seeking scale has good reliability and the items show good item-total correlations. In the Canadian sample item-total correlations ranged from .40 to .64, so there are no significant differences between the two samples.

Table 8. The Avoidance Coping Scale

When I have a problem I usually let it simmer on the back burner for a while.

Avoidance Coping. Avoidance Coping eludes action in a demanding situation by delaying. It is a very short scale, so we would not expect high total reliability values but item-total correlations are quite good.

Intercorrelations among the PCI subscales

The intercorrelations between PCI subscales in the Polish sample were rather high. It indicates that the subscales are not independent. There were some differences in the correlations between the present study and the Canadian one. 

Table 9. Intercorrelations of the PCI subscales – Polish Sample

The most important difference is that there is no the relationship between Proactive Coping and Avoiding Coping in the present study. The second one is the lack of significant correlation between PCS and Instrumental Support Seeking Scale. Third, there was a small significant positive correlation between ISSS and ACS – the same result was obtained in the Polish-Canadian sample. There are small but not important differences between the two samples (the present one and original, Canadian one) in the remaining data.

Table 10. Correlations of PCI subscales with the other measures

According to our expectations we found out the significant relationships between the PCI and depression. Almost all of the subscales correlate negatively with the Beck Depression Inventory with the exception of Avoidance coping.

            Among the relationships between the PCI and the measures of subjective health we resumed that the highest one there were for Proactive Coping Scale and the lowest for avoiding coping and instrumental support seeking. 

            As expected, Proactive coping correlated positively with all measures of subjective health.

            Subjective health correlated positively with Preventing coping, Reflective coping and Strategic Planning.

            As expected, resources correlated positively with both support measures.

Conclusions

The psychometric properties of the new Polish version of the Proactive Coping Inventory obtained in the present study are comparable to the results obtained from the original Canadian sample. It means that despite the cross-cultural differences, the inventory follows a similar course. The results also indicate that the Polish adaptation is a good equivalent of the original measure.

The data suggest some interesting possibilities for future research. For example, while the levels of reliability and validity are acceptable as a whole, future refinement may improve the PCI and make it a useful instrument in the development of empirical research and theory in the area of stress and coping.

 

 References:

Greenglass, E., Schwarzer, R., Jakubiec, D., Fiksenbaum, L., Taubert, S. (1999). The Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI): A theory Guided Multidimensional Instrument: Paper presented at the 20th International Conference of the stress and Anxiety  Research Society (STAR) Cracow, Poland , July 12-14, 1999

Greenglass, E. (2000). Proactive Coping, Distress and Burnout. Implications for Health Functions. Paper presented at the 14th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS), Leiden, Netherlands, August 16 -19, 2000.

Schwarzer, R., Taubert, S. (1999). Radzenie sobie ze stresem: Wymiary i procesy. [Coping with Stress: Dimensions and Processes]. Promocja Zdrowia Nauki Społeczne i Medycyna (6), 17, 72-92

Sęk, H. (2000). Zdrowie behawioralne. [Behavioral health] In. J. Strelau (Ed.) Psychologia. Podręcznik akademicki. [Psychology] (pp. 533-565), Gdańsk: Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne