Assessing the reliability and validity of the John Henry Active Coping Scale in an urban sample of African Americans and white Americans.
OBJECTIVE
The primary focus of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the John Henry Active Coping scale (JHAC12) among an urban middle-aged sample of African Americans and white Americans.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 75 African Americans and 129 white Americans from South Florida ranging in age from 25 to 54 years. Subjects completed the JHAC12, the Life Orientation Test (LOT), Coping Orientation to Problems Encountered (COPE) subscales, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale.


RESULTS
Major findings supported the validity and reliability of the JHAC12 among both African Americans and white Americans. For both the African American and white American subsamples, the JHAC12 was correlated with the active coping and suppression of competing activities subscales of the COPE and negatively correlated with the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale. In the African American subsample the JHAC12 was positively correlated with the LOT. The JHAC12 was also negatively associated with the behavioral disengagement subscale of the COPE among white Americans. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the proportion of variance in the JHAC12 explained by the various subscales of the COPE, Marlowe-Crowne, and the LOT was 43% for African Americans and 20% for white Americans. Factor analyses suggested two similar and meaningful factors among the African American and white American subsamples. Finally, Cronbach alpha reliabilities revealed similar subsample coefficients.


CONCLUSIONS
The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the JHAC12's ability to assess the construct of active coping among African Americans and white Americans.
Fernander
Anita F
AF
Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA. afern2@uky.edu
Durán
Ron E
RE
Saab
Patrice G
PG
Llabre
Maria M
MM
Schneiderman
Neil
N
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American