A new measure of coping with symptoms for use with persons diagnosed with severe mental illness.

The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and field test a measure of coping with symptoms specifically designed for use with persons diagnosed with severe mental illness. Findings are reported on both the development of the Coping with Symptoms Checklist and the initial field trial (n = 91) conducted to examine reliability and validity. Reliability was assessed by computing coefficient alpha, and validity was assessed by examining convergent and discriminant correlations (n = 79 for many analyses). Findings suggest that the measure is a generally reliable and valid way of assessing how persons diagnosed with severe mental illness cope with their symptoms.