Brief report: Development and pilot testing of a coping questionnaire for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions

Objective The current paper describes the development, pilot testing, and item reduction process of a coping questionnaire for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions. Methods A pilot test with 188 children and adolescents was conducted in six European countries. Included in the test were children and adolescents (ages ranging 8-18 years) with various chronic health conditions-asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, arthritis, atopic dermatitis, cerebral palsy, or cystic fibrosis. Based on the focus groups with the children and adolescents and on expert consulting, items were developed and translated into the participants' respective languages. Data were analyzed according to predefined psychometric and content criteria. Results Analyses resulted in a selection of 29 out of 50 items for the final coping questionnaire with six domains: Acceptance alpha = .83, Avoidance alpha = .72, Cognitive-Palliative alpha = .69, Distance alpha = .70, Emotional Reaction alpha = .82, and Wishful Thinking alpha = .81. Conclusions This study developed a short reliable international questionnaire to assess coping strategies of children and adolescents with chronic health conditions. Ongoing research will investigate the validity of this new coping questionnaire.