Development and Testing of the Multi-Modal Coping Inventory (MMCI)

Purpose: The purpose of the development of the Multi-Model Coping Inventory (MMCI) is to develop a measure that is grounded in six individual psychological theories all couched within the metatheoretical assumptions of resiliency theory. Lahad’s (1997, 2001) BASIC Ph model assumes that individuals cope using combinations of six basic modalities, which are: Belief (Existential theory), Affect (Psychodynamic theory), Social (Interpersonal Psychological theory), Imagination (Analytical Psychological theory), Cognition (Cognitive theory), and Physiology (Behavioral theory) (BASIC Ph). Furthermore, the model asserts that individuals use different combinations of the BASIC Ph to reestablish homeostasis, or reintegrate to a new resilient state when a stressor or trauma occurs. The MMCI addresses five major problems that exist in the coping research: (a) it links existing theory with research, (b) it uses a strengths perspective, (c) it is informed and developed by clinicians in order to address clinical utility, (d) it attempts to addresses the disposition-situation issue, and (e) it is subjected to rigorous psychometric testing and construct validation prior to general use.

Methods: A community convenience sample of 534 individuals residing in three adjacent counties in North Carolina was collected from 8 data collection sites located in public locations. The sample was 58% female, 69% Caucasian, with a mean age of 36 and an age range of 18 to 93. Less than 5% of the data were missing, therefore, maximum likelihood estimation values were imputed to replace missing data.

Results: The MMCI was found to have good content validity through two iterations of 4 expert reviewers and a literature review. The sample of 534 was randomly split into subsamples of 334 and 200.  Exploratory Factor Analysis and parallel analyses suggested an 18-item, five-factor model. This was cross-validated using CFA on the other split sample χ² = 233.91, p < .0005, RMSEA = .05, CFI = .95; then on both males χ² = 194.66, p < .0005, RMSEA = .06, CFI = .94 and females χ² = 276.04, p < .0005, RMSEA = .06, CFI = .93, respectively. All five dimensions were orthogonal being correlated less than .30. Four of the five dimensions had adequate internal consistency with one having some marginal internal consistency and ranged from imagination α = .59 to cognition α =  .88. These five dimensions were also found to have adequate test-retest reliability with a subsample (n =146) of respondents using intraclass correlational analysis after a 4 to 6 week time interval.

Implications: A coping scale with strong psychometric properties will be useful for both research and clinical intervention in social work. For intervention, if an individual’s coping dimensions can be adequately measured, then strengths and deficits in the person’s coping language can be identified and strengthened through counseling and therapy. On the research side, a coping measure with strong psychometric properties can serve to enhance validity of research findings regarding human resiliency.