The COSY: a coping strategies scale for undergraduate counseling students

Abstract

Students of Guidance and Counseling programs are subjected to academic and emotional pressures simultaneously and therefore need proper coping strategies. The study was done to create and validate the first psychometric properties of the Coping Strategies Scale for Guidance and Counseling University Students (COSY) in Indonesia. The scale is grounded on the coping models of Lazarus and Folkman and Endler and Parker, thus it includes problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance-oriented coping. According to a methodological literature of instrument development by DeVellis, the authors generated items, consulted experts, and did item analysis within the Classical Test Theory (CTT) framework. The data were collected from a sample of students of Guidance and Counseling who are from 30 provinces in Indonesia and whose total number is 1, 871. The results revealed that twenty-four items fulfilled the criteria for item validity based on the fact that item-total correlations varied from.203 to.590 (p <.001), and the scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α =.82). Thus, it can be concluded that the COSY provides the initial adequate level of reliability and validity at the item level to measure the coping strategies of Guidance and Counseling students in Indonesia.

Keywords
  • Scale development, Counselor trainees, Psychometrics, Stress and coping, Higher education.
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