Reliability
Internal Consistency
For the 100-item 17 subscale RCOPE, Cronbach alpha coefficients were 0.80 or greater for all but two subscales
(Pargament et al., 2000 ). For the 14-item Brief RCOPE, alpha coefficients were 0.90 for positive RC subscale and
0.81 for the negative RC subscale in a college sample, and 0.87 and 0.69, respectively, in an older hospitalized
sample ( Pargament et al., 1998 ). When a 10-item RCOPE (5-item positive and 5-item negative subscales) was
assessed in an adolescent sample aged 12 /C018 years, the alpha coefficients were 0.88 and 0.54, respectively ( Harris
et al., 2008 ). For the 6-item RCOPE, in a general community sample ( N51445), alpha coefficients were 0.81 for
the 3-item positive RC subscale and 0.54 for the 3-item negative RC subscale ( Idler et al., 2003 ).
Test/C0Retest
One week test /C0retest reliability for the 10-item RCOPE in the adolescent sample described above was 0.86 and
0.58 for positive and negative subscales, respectively ( Harris et al., 2008 ). To our knowledge, test-retest reliability
has not been reported for the 100-, 14-, or 6-item versions of the RCOPE.
Validity
Convergent/Concurrent
Scores on the 100-item RCOPE version are positively correlated with similar constructs such as religious
growth/outcome (0.61). The 14-item RCOPE positive subscale also correlates positively with religious growth/
outcome (0.58 to 0.73).
Divergent/Discriminant
The negative subscale has little/no correlation with religious growth/outcome (0.09). There are weak correla-
tions between the 100-item RCOPE positive subscale scores and psychosocial constructs such as mental health
measured via the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, where higher scores indicate worse mental health) (0.00 to
20.14), current distress level (0.00 to 20.04), and physical health ( 20.08 to 0.09) ( Pargament et al., 2000 ).
Negative subscale scores are weakly related to the GHQ (0.01 to 0.17), current distress (0.01 to 0.20), and to physi-
cal health ( 20.02 to 20.18). This is also true for the 14-item RCOPE, where the positive subscale correlates
weakly with emotional distress (0.01 to 0.04), GHQ ( 20.10), and callousness (0.08), and negative subscale corre-
lates weakly with emotional distress (0.00 to 0.18), stress-related growth (0.13), and GHQ mental distress (0.13)
(Pargament et al., 1998 ).
Construct/Factor Analytic
A principal components analysis of the intercorrelations of the 100-item RCOPE revealed 17 components with
loadings ranging from 20.83 to 0.87 in a student sample ( N5540) ( Pargament et al., 2000 ). A principal compo-
nents analysis of the full RCOPE was constrained to two dimensions (most of the items on the different subscales
could be classified as either positive or negative methods of religious coping), and items were chosen based on
those with the largest loadings to create the 14-item Brief RCOPE. Component loadings ranged from 0.53 to 0.78
for the positive subscale and 0.51 to 0.83 for the negative subscale ( Pargament et al., 1998 ).
Criterion/Predictive
Positive religious coping is strongly predictive of measures of spiritual growth (0.34 to 0.62), whereas negative
religious coping is inversely predictive of measures of spiritual growth ( 20.20 to 20.41) ( Koenig, Pargament, &
Nielsen, 1998 ).
Location
Pargament, K.I., Koenig, H.G., & Perez, L.M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and
initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology ,56 (4) , 519/C0543.
Pargament, K.I., Smith, B.W., Koenig, H.G., & Perez, L.M. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious
coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37 (4) , 710/C0724.
Results and Comments
The RCOPE scales have now been used in at least 100 studies examining health outcomes. The 14-item Brief
RCOPE has particular utility in that it assesses both positive and negative ways of coping, and the 7-item540 19. MEASURES OF RELIGIOSITY
V. VICES AND VIRTUES