The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Short Form): A Psychometric Investigation for Nurses

Nursing is known to be a stressful profession that can lead to physical and psychological health issues and behavioural problems. In oncology, workload among nurses is believed to be increasing in conjunction with rapidly increasing numbers of patients with cancer and staff shortages worldwide, therefore it is essential to sustain a quality oncology nurse workforce. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate factorial structure of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations-Short Form (CISS-SF, Endler & Parker, 1999).

In this correlational study, a sample of 151 nurses of Tehran Medical Sciences University completed the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations-Short Form (CISS-SF, Endler & Parker, 1999). The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor statistics analysis methods were used to compute the CISS-SF's factor structure.

Results of principal component analysis (PC) with varimax rotation replicated the four-factor structure of emotion-oriented coping style, task-oriented coping style and avoidance-oriented coping style (including avoidance behaviors of social diversion and distraction) in the sample. Goodness-of-fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis based AMOS Statistics software confirmed the 4 extracted factors (emotion-oriented coping style, task-oriented coping style and avoidance-oriented coping style including avoidance behaviors of social diversion and distraction). Cronbach alpha coefficients for emotion-oriented coping style, task-oriented coping style, social diversion and distraction were 0/83, 0/78, 0/77 and 0/77 respectively.

These findings speak to the robustness of the CISS-SF, in revealing its relatively stable structure, and consequently, to its potential usefulness as a valid measure for assessing preferred coping style for stressful situations in Iranian nurses.