Psychometric Characteristics of the Adolescent Coping Scale with Academically Gifted Adolescents

Abstract

Researchers investigate the affective aspects of adolescents' giftedness with increasing frequency, but their efforts are hampered by the lack of information regarding the reliability and validity of available instruments. The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993) when used with academically gifted adolescents. Results suggest that the Adolescent Coping Scale is sufficiently reliable for group administration and research purposes with the possible exception of the Not Coping (alpha = .57) and Seek Relaxing Diversions scales (alpha = .51). Exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood extraction with oblimin rotation) provides evidence of construct validity for 12 of the 18 scales. Researchers are advised to cautiously interpret gifted students' scores on the remaining six scales (Invest in Close Friends, Not Coping, Focus on Solving the Problem, Seek to Belong, Wishful Thinking, Seek Relaxing Diversions).