DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROLE-PLAY INVENTORY OF SITUATIONS AND COPING STRATEGIES FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC-FIBROSIS

Critiqued previous conceptual and methodological approaches to the mea surement of stress and coping. Applied Goldfried and D'Zurilla's behav ior-analytic model to create a context-specific measure of problematic situations and coping strategies for parents of school-age children w ith cystic fibrosis (CF). The sample was stratified by child's gender and illness severity Forty-seven families (46 mothers, 32 fathers) and 8 health cave professionals completed structured interviews or daily diaries to obtain the widest range of problematic situations; 1,725 si tuations were elicited across all participants and then content-analyz ed into 97 nonredundant categories in 11 domains (e.g., Discipline, Me dical Care). Few differences were found in problem frequency or diffic ulty as a function of either gender or illness severity, Using empiric al criteria, the most frequent and difficult problem situations were s elected and developed into role-play vignettes that include relevant c ontextual, developmental, and interactional details. The Role-Play Inv entory of Situations and Coping Strategies (RISCS) consists of 31 audi otaped vignettes designed to elicit and evaluate the coping strategies used by parents of children with CF.