title: [Adaptation and psychometric proprieties study for the Portuguese version of the Adolescent Coping Scale - Escala de Coping para Adolescentes].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Coping is a psychological process that prompts the individual to adapt to stressful situations. The Adolescent Coping Scale is a widely used research and clinical tool. This study aimed to develop a Portuguese version of the Adolescent Coping Scale and to analyze the strategies and coping styles of young people in our sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anonymous questionnaire comprising the Adolescent Coping Scale was submitted and replied by 1 713 students (56% female, from 12 to 20 years, average age 16) The validity study of the scale included: principal component and reliability analysis; confirmatory analysis using structural equation modelling Subsequently, a gender comparison of both the strategies and the coping styles was conducted through independent samples t tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final structure of the Adolescent Coping Scale adaptation retained 70 items assessing 16 coping strategies grouped into three major styles. The scales showed good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha values between 0.63. and 0.86, with the exception of one dimension that as shown a value of 0.55) and the confirmatory model showed a good fit (goodness of fit index values between 0.94 e 0.96). Two coping strategies were eliminated on statistical grounds (insufficient saturations of items in the corresponding dimensions). We found that the style of coping focused on problem solving is the most used by youths from our sample, in both sexes. Females had higher mean values in non-productive coping style and reference to others.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This adapted version has high similarity with the original scale, with expectable minor changes, given that coping is influenced by cultural, geographical and socio-economic variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study represents an important part of the validation protocol Portuguese Adolescent Coping Scale, including its linguistic adaptation and its internal consistency and factor structure studies.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatria. Faculdade de Medicina. Universidade de Lisboa. Lisboa. Portugal.. dfguerreiro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Diogo Frasquilho
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Guerreiro
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Psicologia. Universidade de Lisboa. Lisboa. Portugal.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatria. Faculdade de Medicina. Universidade de Lisboa. Lisboa. Portugal.. dfguerreiro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria Luísa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Figueira
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatria. Faculdade de Medicina. Universidade de Lisboa. Lisboa. Portugal.. dfguerreiro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sampaio
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult