Abstract
The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the Haitian Creole version of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE). A total of 256 adult survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti completed the Brief RCOPE and measures of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, resilience, general coping, and posttraumatic growth. The results showed the Brief RCOPE to have excellent internal consistency reliability α = .94 and α = .85 for the positive religious coping and negative religious coping, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis showed construct validity for the Brief RCOPE subscales. The results also showed evidence of convergent validity of the Brief RCOPE in relation to measures of positive spiritual change and religion. Independent t-tests revealed statistically significant gender differences in scores on the positive religious coping subscales as women scored higher than men. These findings suggest that the psychometric properties of the Haitian Creole version of the Brief RCOPE are adequate for the assessment of religious coping with Haitian adults exposed to a natural disaster.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Campbell-Sills, L., & Stein, M. B. (2007). Psychometric analysis and refinement of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC): Validation of a 10-item measure of resilience. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20(6), 1019–1028. https://doi.org/10.1002/Jts.20271
Carver, C. S. (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: Consider the Brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558ijbm0401_6
Casaleiro, T., Martins, H., & Caldeira, S. (2022). Validation of the Brief RCOPE in Portuguese family caregivers of adults with health conditions. Religions, 13(2), 144. https://doi.org/10.3390/Rel13020144
Central Intelligence Agency. (2023). Haiti. In The world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/haiti/
Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. (2001). SPRINT: A brief global assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16(5), 279–284. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004850-200109000-00005
García, F. E., Oyanedel, J. C., Páez, D., & Arias, P. R. (2021). Psychometric properties of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief-RCOPE) in Chilean adults exposed to stressful events. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(1), 475–487. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10943-019-00976-7
Gerber, M. M., Boals, A., & Schuettler, D. (2011). The unique contributions of positive and negative religious coping to posttraumatic growth and PTSD. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 3(4), 298–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023016
Hackbarth, M., Pavkov, T., Wetchler, J., & Flannery, M. (2012). Natural disasters: An assessment of family resiliency following Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, 38(2), 340–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0606.2011.00227.x
Hvidtjørn, D., Hjelmborg, J., Skytthe, A., Christensen, K., & Hvidt, N. C. (2014). Religiousness and religious coping in a secular society: The gender perspective. Journal of Religion and Health, 53(5), 1329–1341. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10943-013-9724-Z
Janu, A., Malinakova, K., Kosarkova, A., Furstova, J., & Tavel, P. (2019). Psychometric evaluation of the Negative Religious Coping (NRC) Scale of the Brief RCOPE in the Czech environment. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 22(6), 614–625. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2019.1597033
Koenig, H. G. (2012). Religion, spirituality, and health: The research and clinical implications. ISRN Psychiatry, 2012, 278730–278733. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/278730
Koenig, H. G., & AlZaben, F. (2021). Psychometric validation and translation of religious and spiritual measures. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(5), 3467–3483. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10943-021-01373-9
Martinez, N. C., & Sousa, V. D. (2011). Cross-cultural validation and psychometric evaluation of the Spanish Brief Religious Coping Scale (S-BRCS). Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 22(3), 248–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659611404426
Mesidor, J. K., & Sly, K. F. (2019). Religious coping, general coping strategies, perceived social support, PTSD symptoms, resilience, and posttraumatic growth among survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 22(2), 130–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2019.1580254
Mohammadzadeh, A., & Najafi, M. (2016). Factor analysis and validation of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief-RCOPE) in Iranian University students. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 19(8), 911–919. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2017.1282445
O’Grady, K. A., Rollison, D. G., Hanna, T. S., SchreiberPan, H., & Ruiz, M. A. (2012). Earthquake in Haiti: Relationship with the sacred in times of trauma. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 40(4), 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711204000404
Pagán-Torres, O. M., Cumba-Avilés, E., Rosario-Hernández, E., & González-Rivera, J. A. (2021). Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief-RCOPE) in Puerto Rican adults. Revista Evaluar, 21(2), 48–62. https://doi.org/10.35670/1667-4545.v21.n2.34396
Paika, V., Ntountoulaki, E., Papaioannou, D., Kotsis, K., Siafaka, V., Fountoulakis, K. N., Pargament, K. I., Carvalho, A. F., & Hyphantis, T. (2017). The Greek-Orthodox version of the Brief Religious Coping (B-RCOPE) instrument: Psychometric properties in three samples and associations with mental disorders, suicidality, illness perceptions, and quality of life. Annals of General Psychiatry, 16(1), 13–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12991-017-0136-4
Pargament, K., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The Brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2(1), 51–76. https://doi.org/10.3390/Rel2010051
Rezaeipandari, H., Morowatisharifabad, M. A., Mohammadpoorasl, A., & Shaghaghi, A. (2021). Psychometric rigor of the Brief Religious Coping Measure (RCOPE) in Persian-speaking older adults. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(5), 3484–3499. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10943-021-01229-2
Shaw, A., Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2005). Religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth: A systematic review. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367467032000157981
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/Jts.2490090305
Wild, D., Grove, A., Martin, M., Eremenco, S., McElroy, S., Verjee-Lorenz, A., & Erikson, P. (2005). Principles of good practice for the translation and cultural adaptation process for patient-reported outcomes (PRO) measures: Report of the ISPOR task force for translation and cultural adaptation. Value in Health, 8(2), 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1524-4733.2005.04054.X
Funding
No funds, grants, or other support to disclose.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by JKM and KFS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JKM, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
No conflict of interest.
Informed Consent
Participants were informed of the study’s purpose, and consent was obtained from all the participants.
Ethical Approval
All the study procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Jackson State University and the Board of the Université d’Etat d’Haiti Faculté des Sciences Humaines in Haiti.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Mesidor, J.K., Sly, K.F. Psychometric Properties of the Haitian Creole Brief Religious Coping Scale (RCOPE) with a Sample of Adult Haitians Impacted by the 2010 Earthquake. J Relig Health 62, 3640–3650 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01853-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01853-0