The Development and Validation of a Chinese Proactive Coping Inventory Among Chinese College Students

Abstract

The current study reports the development of a dispositional Chinese Proactive Coping (CPC) Inventory to assess proactive coping activities, which intend to interfere with or prepare for potential future stressors, among Chinese college students. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using two samples of Chinese college students ( N = 459) suggested the viability and stability of a four-factor model: Active Preparation for Potential Stressors, Utilizing Knowledge of Potential Stressors, Contextual Consideration of Proactive Actions, and Approaching Proactive Actions. The 17-item CPC provided strong evidences of psychometric properties, and the proactive coping strategies represented in the items were helpful in resolving life problems. In addition, concurrent, construct, and incremental validity estimates suggest the CPC (a) was conceptually not only quite different than the reactive coping inventories but also slightly positively related, (b) was associated with a range of indices of psychological adjustment, and (c) uniquely predicted additional variance in coping outcomes beyond social desirability. The results suggest the importance of broadening coping theories to include proactive coping reflecting the complex nature of human coping behaviors.