Use of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations in a clinically depressed sample: factor structure, personality correlates, and prediction of distress.

The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS; Endler & Parker, 1990) is a self-report measure of Emotion-, Task-, and Avoidance-oriented coping. The psychometric properties of the CISS were evaluated in a large sample of outpatients with major depressive disorder (N = 298). The CISS scales demonstrated good reliability and support for their factorial validity was obtained. Relationships between the CISS scales and the broad personality domains from the five-factor model of personality, as well as two measures of emotional distress, were examined. Less-adaptive coping strategies (i.e., Emotion-oriented coping) were associated with less-adaptive personality traits (i.e., Neuroticism) and with psychological distress (i.e., Depression), whereas the reverse was found regarding adaptive coping strategies (i.e., Task-orientated coping). The incremental validity of the CISS was demonstrated by multiple-regression analyses that found two CISS scales accounted for significant variance in psychological distress beyond that contributed by the demographic and personality variables. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 59: 423-437, 2003.