Abstract:

Objective   To assess the reliability and validity of the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, and explore the relationship between coping style and rural suicide.  Methods  Data from 200 suicides that happened from September 1,  2008 to August 31, 2009 were collected from 25 towns in 3 counties which were selected from disease surveillance points of Shandong Province. One informant of each suicide and the paired control with the same gender, age (no more than 3 years difference), and district as the suicide were interviewed. Results   The Cronbach′s α of the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire in suicides and controls were 0.805 and 0.772, respectively. The scores of positive and negative coping styles both showed significant differences between suicides and controls (P<0.001), and both of them had negative correlations with the scores of Beck Hopelessness Scale (r=-0.519, -0.196; both P<0.001). The exploratory factor analysis was carried out in the suicide group and the control group, and 5 and 6 factors were respectively produced, which were different from the hypothesis of the scale′s original designer. Positive coping style was significantly negatively associated with suicide by multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis (OR=0.906, 95% CI=0.850-0.966). Conclusion   The Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire has good reliability, discrimination validity, and criterion validity in rural suicide research. However, the structural validity is different from the original design and further research is needed to modify or delete some items to improve the structural validity. Positive coping style might be a protective factor for rural suicide.

Key words: Simplified coping; Reliability; Validity; Suicide; Rural