Psychometric properties of the coping inventory for task stressors: evaluation among African American and Caucasian, Alzheimer's disease caregivers

Purpose: The Coping Inventory for Task Stressors (CITS) is a measure with three subscales to assess empirically task-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance coping strategies. The purpose of this study was twofold: to re-examine the properties of the CITS; and to examine property differences between African American and Caucasian Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregivers, a population who notably copes with chronic adversity. Methods: The study used self-reported data from AD caregivers (N = 691) in the southern United States, recruited from an AD service organization, and community and health organizations in African American communities. Results: African American and Caucasian caregivers were equally likely to use both task-focused and emotion-focused coping, while African American caregivers were more likely to use avoidance coping. No significant differences were observed between ethnic groups on levels of burden or resilience. Factor analysis results were mixed between ethnic groups. Reliability of task- and emotion-focused CITS subscales, but not the avoidance subscale, was acceptable across all samples. Validity analyses in the broader sample revealed a significant positive relationship between task-focused coping and resilience, while emotion-focused and avoidance coping had negative relationships with coping, as expected. Results were mixed across all samples for the CITS subscales and the two burden measures. Implications: Although no clear choice of coping strategy emerged as effective in lowering caregiver burden, the results suggest that task-focused coping may best serve caregivers in strengthening resilience, irrespective of ethnicity. The results also point to the trend of increasing age among AD caregivers, a factor which indirectly affects health and quality of life of care recipients. Thus, it is important for the healthcare community to understand and effectively intervene in this dynamic.