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Measuring Adolescent Coping Styles Following a Natural Disaster: An ESEM Analysis of the Kidcope

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Abstract

The ways in which youth cope with the following traumatic experiences have a critical impact on resilience and recovery, yet few measures adequately assess adolescent coping behaviors while exhibiting sound psychometric properties. The current study uses exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to analyze data from the Kidcope, an assessment tool that is widely used in both clinical and research settings. A total of 652 hurricane-affected adolescent females completed the Kidcope approximately 6 months following Hurricane Katrina. ESEM results yielded a four-factor model including positive coping, blame and anger, wishful thinking, and social withdrawal. The coping behaviors represented in the four latent factors are consistent with results of a previous study of a hurricane-affected White, middle-class sample; however, they differ from the coping behaviors used by primarily Black, lower-income sample experiencing the same disaster. Results indicate that demographic and cultural characteristics may be strong influences in determining children’s coping styles and behaviors and should be taken into account when providing services to help youth recover.

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Author notes

  1. Drs. Powell and Wegmann share first authorship of this manuscript. They are listed alphabetically and share corresponding author responsibilities.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Illinois Urbana—Champaign, 1010 W. Nevada St., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Tara M. Powell & Kate M. Wegmann

  2. Department of Psychology, Tulane University, 3019 Percival Stern Hall, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    Stacy Overstreet

Authors
  1. Tara M. Powell
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  2. Kate M. Wegmann
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  3. Stacy Overstreet
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Correspondence to Tara M. Powell or Kate M. Wegmann.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study (retrospective), formal consent is not required.

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Powell, T.M., Wegmann, K.M. & Overstreet, S. Measuring Adolescent Coping Styles Following a Natural Disaster: An ESEM Analysis of the Kidcope. School Mental Health 11, 335–344 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-018-9288-x

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