Factor Structure of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire in Parkinson's Disease.

Emily J Corti,Romola S Bucks,Andrew R Johnson,Meghan G Thomas,Andrea M Loftus,Natalie Gasson

doi:10.1155/2018/7128069

Emily J Corti, Romola S Bucks + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7128069

Copy DOI

Abstract

The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) is used extensively in health research, but the measurement properties and suitability of the WCQ for people with Parkinson's disease (PD) have not been psychometrically assessed. If the WCQ does not align with its original 8-factor structure in a PD population, the use of the WCQ subscales may not be appropriate. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and multiple-group EFA to determine the ideal factor structure of the WCQ in a PD sample. The original 8 factors of the WCQ were not reproduced. EFA revealed a 6-factor structure, including Distancing, Faith, Avoidance, Seeking Social Support, Planful Problem Solving, and Confrontive coping. As motor symptom severity may impact coping, the stability of the 6-factor structure was examined across motor symptom severity (mild and moderate), remaining consistent. Higher levels of overall motor severity were associated with increased use of faith and avoidance style coping. These findings suggest that the 6-factor structure of the WCQ may be more appropriate for assessing coping styles in PD.

Highlights

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor and nonmotor symptoms that impact significantly upon an individual’s functional abilities [1, 2]
It has been suggested that a lack of flexibility in coping processes is associated with poorer mental and physical health outcomes in PD [15], which indicates that some coping choices may be adaptive for particular stressors/situations yet maladaptive for others
While the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) is not the only measure of coping used in PD, no scales have been developed for measuring coping in Parkinson’s and few general coping questionnaires have been validated in a PD sample [28]. erefore, the present study examined the factor structure of the WCQ in a large, community-based PD cohort

Summary

Introduction

PD is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor (tremor, bradykinesia, and rigidity) and nonmotor symptoms (sleep disturbances, cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, stress intolerance, and psychiatric dysfunction) that impact significantly upon an individual’s functional abilities [1, 2]. Based on the EFA, the authors instead proposed a threefactor structure, including cognitive reframing, emotional respite, and direct assistance [18] These three factors did not contain all of the original items from the WCQ, due to poor psychometric fit with the model. Is is consistent with the research that reports individuals with more severe motor symptoms tend to use more emotion-focussed coping strategies [23]. Use of emotion-focussed coping strategies decreased in individuals with less severe motor symptoms [24] Taken together, these findings suggest that coping strategies are impacted by disease severity and the type of stressor. Since motor symptom severity may impact upon coping strategies used [22], this study compared the factor structure of the WCQ-revised in people with mild versus moderate PD motor symptom severity

Methods

Measures

Results e CFA of the 8-factor structure showed poor fit to the data