BULGARIAN ADAPTATION OF THE BEFO26 COPYING STRATEGIES QUESTIONNAIRE THROUGH THE ITEM RESPONSE THEORY
Keywords:
item analysis, copings, item response theoryAbstract
Offering a toolkit for exploring coping strategies to deal with stress and difficulties is an important source of self-knowledge and knowledge about others. The Berne Coping Forms (BEFO) questionnaire for examining coping strategies, created by Heim, Augustiny, Blaser, and Schaffner (1991), has an original version with 26 items, which we adapt in the present study. Ten items refer to cognitive coping. Eight items describe emotional coping. Also, eight items describe behavioral coping. In each group of coping strategies—cognitive, emotional, or behavioral—the participant chooses only one coping strategy—the one he or she prefers to use habitually to cope with stress and difficulties. These three types of coping, in turn, can also be adaptive, relatively adaptive, or maladaptive. The participants in the study were 688 adults aged 18 to 75 years old, with an average age of about 34 years old. The participants were students or workers with different specialties and professions. The results were processed using jMetrik software. A one-parameter Rasch model was applied to establish the difficulty of the items. The reliability and validity of the sub-scales of the questionnaire were established according to the item response theory. The results allow us to conclude that the questionnaire is a suitable psychological tool for diagnosing different types of coping (both individual types of coping strategies and grouped into cognitive, emotional, behavioral, adaptive, relatively adaptive, and maladaptive coping), which can be used in practice for different social groups to assess coping over different periods of time and in different situations. The establishment of the good psychometric properties of the BEFO26 questionnaire allows the enrichment of psychological practice in Bulgaria with an additional instrument for the study of coping strategies. The use of the item response theory to verify the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire allows to overcome some limitations of the classical test theory related to the establishment of a factor structure of a questionnaire in which, according to the design of its authors, each item examines separate, different, and independent types of coping strategies.
References
Al_alem, R. A. F. M. (2022). Accuracy of estimating item parameters and individual' ability of three-parameter Item Response Theory model using Joint Maximum Likelihood Estimation method in light of sample size and test length. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(8), 1744-1759. Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Prentice Hall. Assanovich, M. A. (2018). Metodologiya i prikladnyye aspekty metricheskoy sistemy Rasha v klinicheskoy psikhodiagnostike [Methodology and applied aspects of Rasch metric system in clinical psychodiagnostics]. Grodnenskiy Gosudarstvennyy Meditsinskiy Universitet. Heim, E., Augustiny, K., Blaser, A. & Schaffner, L. (1991). Berner Newältigungs-formen BEFO. Handbuch [Bern New Coping Form. Handbook]. Verlag Hans Huber. Heim, E. & Valach, L. (1996). The Bern Coping Forms BEFO--an instrument for self- and observer rating of coping with illness. Rehabilitation, 35(4), 31-41. Kamaruddin, M., & Mohd Matore, M. E. E. (2021). Development and validation of psychometric properties of the 10 IB Learner Profile Instrument (10IBLP-I): A combination of the Rasch and Classical Measurement Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 6455. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126455 Khachaturova, M. R. (2012). Samoeffektivnost' lichnosti i yeye svyaz' s vyborom koping-strategiy povedeniya v mezhlichnostnom konflikte [Personality self-efficacy and its relationship to the choice of coping strategies of behavior in interpersonal conflict]. Al'manakh Sovremennoy Nauki i Obrazovaniya, 9(52), 92-96.
Kiseleva, A. A., Kuz'min, M. Y., & Kozlov, V. V. (2020). Osobennosti sovladayushchego povedeniya pedagogov razlichnogo stazha i spetsial'nosti [Peculiarities of coping behavior of teachers with different work experience and specialty]. Integratsiya obrazovaniya, 24(4), 641–655. https://doi.org/10.15507/1991-9468.101.024.202004.641-655 Kodochigova, A. I., Kirichuk, V. F., & Olenko, E. S. (2017). Zashchitno-kompensatornoye povedeniye patsiyentov kardiologicheskoy kliniki [Protective-compensatory behavior of cardiology clinic patients]. Psikhosomaticheskiye i Integrativnyye Issledovaniya, 3, article 0204, 1-6. Koroleva, N. N., Bogdanovskaya, I. M., Uglova, A. B., Rokhina, E. V., & Volkova, I. P. (2023). Lichnostnyye resursy sovladaniya s organizatsionnym stressom u rabotayushchikh studentov vuzov [Personal resources of coping with organizational stress in working university students]. Chelovecheskiy Kapital, 12, 274-281. https://doi.org/10.25629/HC.2023.12.27 Linacre, J. M. (n.d.). Reliability and separation of measures. Help for Winsteps Rasch measurement and Rasch analysis software: www.winsteps.com. https://www.winsteps.com/winman/reliability.htm Lugovskaya, A. A. (2017). Analiz konstruktnoy validnosti i nadezhnosti shkal metodiki diagnostiki koping-mekhanizmov E. Khayma na osnove modeli Rasha [Analysis of construct validity and reliability of the Heim’s coping mechanism scales based on the Rasch model]. Journal of the Grodno State Medical University, 1, 42-47. Meyer, J. P. (2018b). jMetrik version 4.1.1 [Computer software]. https://itemanalysis.com/jmetrik-download/ Miteva, S. (2013). Adaptivni strategii i samorealizatsiya na studenti. Disertatsiya za pridobivane na ONS “doktor“ [Students’ adaptive strategies and self-realization. PhD thesis]. South-West University “Neofit Rilski“. Nabiullina, R. R., & Tukhtarova, I. V. (2003). Mekhanizmy psikhologicheskoy zashchity i sovladaniya so stressom (opredeleniye, struktura, funktsii, vidy, psikhoterapevticheskaya korrektsiya) [Mechanisms of psychological defense and coping with stress (definition, structure, functions, types, psychotherapeutic correction)]. Kazanskiy gosudarstvenny meditsinskiy universitet. Nguyen, D., & Zhang, A. Y. (2024). A spectral approach to Item Response Theory. In S. Koyejo, S. Mohamed, A. Agarwal, D. Belgrave, K. Cho, & A. Oh (Eds.), NIPS'22: Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, New Orleans LA USA 28 November 2022 - 9 December 2022 (Article No. 2813, pp. 38818 - 38830). Curran Associates Inc. Pada, A., Kartowagiran, B., & Subali, B. (2016). Separation index and fit items of creative thinking skills assessment. REID (Research and Evaluation in Education), 2(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.21831/reid.v2i1.8260 Rasch, G. (1960). Probabilistic models for some intelligence and attainment tests. Danish Institute for Educational Research. Todorova, L. A. (2013). Deynostnata samootsenka v ergoterapiyata pri detsa s uvrezhdaniya i v neravnostoyno polozhenie. Avtoreferat na disertatsiya za prisazhdane na obrazovatelnata i nauchna stepen doctor [Self-steem of activity in occupational therapy for disabled and disadvantaged children. Abstract of PhD thesis]. Ruse University “Angel Kanchev”. Tomashchik, T. E., & Assanovich, M. A. (2022). Psikhometricheskiy analiz i modifikatsiya Gissenskogo oprosnika somaticheskikh zhalob [Psychometric analysis and modification of the Giessen somatic complaints inventory]. Journal of the Grodno State Medical University, 20(2), 204-208. https://doi.org/10.25298/2221-8785-2022-20-2-204-208 Tsidik, L. I. (2017). Psikhometricheskiy analiz pervoy shkaly oprosnika nevroticheskikh i nevrozopodobnykh rasstroystv na osnove modeli Rasha [Psychometric analysis of the first scale of the questionnaire of neurotic and neurosis-like disorders based on the Rasch model]. Journal of the Grodno State Medical University, 15(4), 410-413. Vodop'yanova, N. E. (2009). Psikhodiagnostika stressa [Psychodiagnostics of stress]. Piter. Wright, B. D., & Linacre, J. M. (1994). Reasonable mean-square fit values. Rasch Measurement Transactions, 8(3), 370. https://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt83b.htm Zarubina, N. V., & Spirin, N. N. (2020). Osobennosti koping-strategiy bol'nykh rasseyannym sklerozom s depressiyey [Features of coping strategies of multiple sclerosis patients with depression]. Vestnik Ivanovskoy Meditsinskoy Akademii, 25(1), 31-35. Zmanovskaya, E. V. (2003). Deviantologiya (Psikhologiya otklonyayushchegosya povedeniya) [Deviantology (Psychology of deviant behavior)]. Akademiya.
