title: Development and validation of the coping with terror scale.
abstract: Terrorism creates lingering anxiety about future attacks. In prior terror research, the conceptualization and measurement of coping behaviors were constrained by the use of existing coping scales that index reactions to daily hassles and demands. The authors created and validated the Coping with Terror Scale to fill the measurement gap. The authors emphasized content validity, leveraging the knowledge of terror experts and groups of Israelis. A multistep approach involved construct definition and item generation, trimming and refining the measure, exploring the factor structure underlying item responses, and garnering evidence for reliability and validity. The final scale comprised six factors that were generally consistent with the authors' original construct specifications. Scores on items linked to these factors demonstrate good reliability and validity. Future studies using the Coping with Terror Scale with other populations facing terrorist threats are needed to test its ability to predict resilience, functional impairment, and psychological distress.
authors.affiliation: National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Nathan R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Yonit
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Schorr
authors.forename: Brett T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Litz
authors.forename: Lynda A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Zahava
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horesh
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012067:Religion; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult