Brief COPE Short Version (Mini-COPE): A Proposal of Item and Factorial Reduction in Mexican Population

The factorial reduction of Brief COPE has not been successfully replicated by independent studies, and few have been performed in Spanish-speaking populations; therefore, the objective of this study was to perform a factorial reduction of the instrument in a large sample of the Mexican population and perform a convergent and divergent validity of the factors obtained. We distributed a questionnaire via social networks with sociodemographic and psychological variables, including the Brief COPE and the scales of the CPSS, GAD-7, and CES-D to measure stress, anxiety, and depression. A total of 1283 persons were included, most of whom (64.8%) were women and had a bachelor's degree (55.2%). After performing the exploratory factorial analysis, we did not find a model with an adequate fit and a reduced number of factors; therefore, we decided to reduce the number of items according to the most representative ones of adaptive, maladaptive, and emotional coping strategies. The resulting model with three factors showed good fit parameters and good internal consistency of the factors. In addition, the nature and naming of the factors were confirmed by convergent and divergent validity, with significant negative correlations between factor 1 (active/adaptive) and stress, depression, and anxiety, significant positive correlations between factor 2 (avoidant/maladaptive) and these three variables, and no significant correlation between factor 3 (emotional/neutral) and stress or depression. This shortened version of the brief COPE (Mini-COPE) is a good option to evaluate adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in Spanish-speaking populations.

Sex Differences in Mental Status and Coping Strategies among Adult Mexican Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

We performed a cross-sectional study in order to determine the association between stress coping strategies and stress, depression, and anxiety, in which the Mexican population was invited to answer these variables by an electronic questionnaire. A total of 1283 people were included, of which 64.8% were women. Women presented higher levels of stress, depression, and anxiety than men; likewise, women showed a higher frequency of some maladaptive coping strategies (behavioral disengagement and denial) and lower levels of some adaptive ones (active coping and planning); additionally, maladaptive coping strategies were positively correlated with stress and depression in both sexes: self-blame, behavioral disengagement, denial, substance use, and self-distraction. Likewise, there were negative correlations between stress and depression and the adaptive strategies: planning, active coping, acceptance, and positive reframing. For women, religion presented negative correlations with stress, depression, and anxiety, and humor showed low positive correlations with stress, anxiety, and depression. In conclusion, most adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies are common in both sexes with the exception of religion, which seems to be adaptive in women and neutral in men, and humor, which seems to be adaptive in men and maladaptive in women. In addition, emotional and instrumental support seem to be neutral in both sexes.

Association between Emotional Intelligence and Stress Coping Strategies According to Sex in Mexican General Population

Emotional intelligence has been associated with adaptive coping in the adolescent and young population; however, the association of specific dimensions of emotional intelligence with each coping strategy has not been associated in general nor by each sex separately. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine such an association. The general population was invited to perform an electronic questionnaire via social networks. A sample of 984 individuals were included, from which 62.1% were women, in whom we detected higher levels of emotional attention, and lower levels of emotional clarity and emotional repair, as well as increased levels of stress, depression and anxiety than men. In the bivariate correlations we observed significant positive correlations between emotional attention with stress, depression and anxiety, and significant negative correlations between emotional clarity and emotional repair with the three negative psychological variables, in both sexes. Adaptive coping strategies (mainly active coping and planning) showed positive correlations with emotional attention, emotional clarity and repair, being higher for emotional clarity and repair in both sexes. In addition, these two subscales also showed low negative correlations between some maladaptive strategies in both sexes, which suggests that interventions addressed to increase these emotional abilities could be useful in increasing adaptive coping.