Brief Religious COPE – Brief RCOPE
Measures positive and negative religious coping strategies used to deal with major life stressors.
Scale Development & Technical Details
Scale Overview
The Brief Religious COPE – Brief RCOPE was developed by Kenneth I. Pargament, Bruce W. Smith, Harold G. Koenig, Lisa Perez (1998). It is designed to measure Religious Coping. The scale is intended for use with Adults experiencing major life stressors.
Scale Structure
This instrument consists of 14 items organized into 2 factors/subscales: Positive Religious Coping, Negative Religious Coping.
| Factor / Subscale | Items | N |
|---|---|---|
| Positive Religious Coping | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 | 7 |
| Negative Religious Coping | 8,9,10,11,12,13,14 | 7 |
Response Format
Respondents rate each item using a custom response format.
Response anchors: 1 = Not at all, 2 = Somewhat, 3 = Quite a bit, 4 = A great deal.
Scoring
Items are scored by subscale, with each subscale sum representing a distinct dimension.
Total scores range from 7 to 28. Interpretation guidelines:
- Low usage of coping strategy: 7 – 14
- Moderate usage of coping strategy: 15 – 21
- High usage of coping strategy: 22 – 28
Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency: The scale has demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency with reported Cronbach’s alpha values of Positive subscale α = 0.90, Negative subscale α = 0.81.
Administration
The scale is self-administered and typically takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. It can be administered individually or in group settings. No special training is required for administration.