Partners in adversity. IV. Coping and mood.

This paper presents details of an interviewer-based measure of coping, completed in the context of a study examining the mental health of three groups of married women following their exposure to recent severe adversity. For one group a marital partner had recently died and for another group a marital partner had recently experienced a myocardial infarction. The third group consisted of those women recently entering a Women's Aid refuge. Initial interviews were completed about 6 weeks following event experience. Coping and mood state were re-assessed about 4 months after the events that had recruited the samples to the study. The measures of coping response were adapted from the coping domains of 'fighting spirit', 'helplessness', 'fatalism', 'avoidance' and 'anger/frustration' assessed in the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale. Details are provided of the construction of a summary measure of coping response based upon the above domains and of its relationship with follow-up mood state after allowance for mood levels at initial interview.