TESTING THE THEORETICAL-MODELS UNDERLYING THE WAYS OF COPING QUESTIONNAIRE WITH COUPLES

Recently, the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) has been challenged b y confirmatory factor analyses suggesting the inadequacy of the theore tical model underlying this measure. Because these conclusions came fr om only two studies, we sought to investigate the structural validity of the WCQ, using first-order and second-order confirmatory factor ana lyses with a sample of 506 couples who completed the questionnaire. Tw o multidimensional models and their associated hierarchical models, we re tested. The multidimensional four-factor model received adequate em pirical support and was a better approximation of the data than the ei ght-factor model.