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The development of a shortened ‘Ways of Coping Questionnaire’ for use with

direct care staff in learning disability services

Article  in  Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities · December 1995

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-3148.1995.tb00160.x

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 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
SHORTENED ‘WAYS OF COPING’
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR USE WITH
DIRECT CARE STAFF IN LEARNING
DISABILITY SERVICES
Chris Hatton and Eric Emerson
Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester
M13 9PL UK

Paper accepted November 1994

Abstract This study reports the development of the Shortened Ways of
Coping (Revised) Questionnaire (SWC-R), a measure of staff coping stra-
tegies designed to be easily administered and scored in work settings. The
14-item self-report measure is scored into two subscales, Practical Coping
and Wishful Thinking, representing distinct Ways of Coping. The
reliability of the SWC-R was evaluated by administering questionnaires
containing the SWC-R to 181 direct care staff in four learning disability
services and, in an attempt to explore issues of validity, measures of social
desirability, distress, overall job satisfaction, overall life satisfaction, and
propensity to leave the organisation. A subset of 30 staff completed the
questionnaire twice over a 16-month period, enabling some exploration of
test-retest reliability and predictive validity. Both subscales show adequate
psychometric properties in terms of alpha reliabilities, inter-item corre-
lations, inter-scale correlations, and test-retest reliabilities. While the
Wishful Thinking subscale is prone to a social desirability bias, exclusion
of such a measure from analyses does not seem to lead to false positive
errors. The Wishful Thinking subscale shows a reliable positive associ-
ation with distress (even over a 16-month period) and some negative
associations with overall life satisfaction, but the Practical Coping sub-
scale is associated with none of the outcome measures used in the study.
The further use of the SWC-R in research concerning direct care staff in
human services is recommended.

Introduction
The importance of the role played by direct care staff in learning dis-
ability services has been widely acknowledged (Reid et al., 1989; Rice &

0952-9608/95/04/0237-158 1O.OO/O 0 1995 BILD Publications

MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH Vol. 8, No. 4, 1995
237
238 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

Rosen, 1991). It is now well established that inefficiency or wastage among

this section of an organisation’s workforce can have far-reaching impli-
cations in terms of high costs to service providers (Baumeister & Zaharia,
1986) and a lack of continuity of care provided to service users (Maslach &
Pines, 1977).
Recent research has begun to focus on characteristics of direct care staff
that may affect job performance and staff turnover, such as job satisfaction,
distress and burnout (Bersani & Heifetz, 1985; Browner et al., 1987; Caton
et al., 1988; Corrigan, 1993; Hatton & Emerson, 1993; Maslach, 1982;
Power & Sharp, 1988; Sarata, 1974; Thomson, 1987). Several studies have
attempted to identify sources of job satisfaction and/or distress among
direct care staff. Such sources of job satisfaction or distress can be classified
as being within the person, such as anxiety and health (Browner et al.,
1987; Power & Sharp, 1988), related to the client group, such as challeng-
ing behaviour shown by service users (Bersani & Heifetz, 1985), or related
to organisational characteristics, such as social support and job variety
(Allen et al., 1990; Bersani & Heifetz, 1985; Browner et al., 1987; Hatton &
Emerson, 1993).
Although the sources of staff dissatisfaction have been studied in some
detail, less attention has been paid to factors which may mediate the
relationship between potential sources of dissatisfaction and the actual lev-
els of distress and job satisfaction reported by direct care staff. In parti-
cular, very few studies have focused on the coping strategies used by direct
care staff to deal with problems they encounter at work (c.f. Hatton &
Emerson, 1993; Thomson, 1987), even though the importance of coping
strategies in influencing distress has been demonstrated in studies of infor-
mal carers of children with learning disabilities (e.g. Knussen et al., 1992;
Quine & Pahl, 1985; Sloper et al., 1991; Sloper & Turner, 1994) and in
the wider organisational literature (e.g. Arnold et al., 1991; Cooper &
Payne, 1988; Warr, 1987).
One possible obstacle to the investigation of staff coping strategies may
be the lack of a reliable and valid measure that can be easily administered
and scored in work settings. T h e present study sought to develop such
a measure of staff coping strategies (the Shortened Ways of Coping
(Revised) questionnaire, or SWC-R) and evaluate its reliability and Val-
idity. The study involved the administration of the SWC-R to 21 1 staff in
four different learning disability services to evaluate:

(1) the internal reliability of the SWC-R;

(2) relationships between the SWC-R and measures of social desirability,
distress, overall job satisfaction, overall satisfaction with life, and pro-
pensitjl of staff to leave the organisation;
 COPING IN DIRECT CARE STAFF 239

(3) the stability of the SWC-R over time.

Method
Settings and participants
Participants in the study were direct care staff in four residential services
for adults with sensory impairments and severe learning disabilities. The
four services are briefly described below (further details are available in
Hatton et al., 1995):
Service I was a campus-style residential education service for 38
young adults with dual sensory impairments and severe learning dis-
abilities.
Service 2 consisted of a number of small staffed houses, with all 22
service users using the same day facilities as Service 1.
Service 3 consisted of a number of small staffed houses for 41 young
adults with dual sensory impairments and severe learning disabilities,
sharing further education day facilities.
Service 4 consisted of a number of small staffed houses for 14 adults
with visual impairment and severe learning disabilities, with day ser-
vices provided by several different agencies.
Information from all four services was collected in the first six months
of 1993. Information from Service 1 had also been collected in late 1991,
approximately 16 months before the 1993 information collection. Ques-
tionnaires from staff in Service 1 were therefore split into 3 independent
groups for analysis:
(1) staff who only completed questionnaires in 1991 (Service 1-1991
group);
(2) staff who only completed questionnaires in 1993 (Service 1-1993a
group);
(3) 1993 data from staff who completed questionnaires in both 1991 and
1993 (Service 1-1993b group). Both 1991 and 1993 data from this
group were also used to calculate test-retest reliability and to explore
the predictive validity of the SWC-R.
Information concerning the number of responses, response rates, and
basic characteristics of the respondents is presented in Table 1. Response
rates varied according to the method of questionnaire distribution; services
where staff training sessions were set aside for questionnaire completion
yielded higher response rates than services where questionnaires were dis-
tributed to staff to complete in their own time and return by post to
240 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

Table 1 Number of responses, response rates, staff age, staff sex, and staff tenure
at service

Number of Response Mean age of Percentage Tenure

Responses Rate Staff (years) of (months)
Women

Service 1-1991 36 75%" 26 78% 21

Service 1-1993a 27 48%b 29 71% 19
Service 1-1993b 30 48%b 26 67% 36
Service 2 31 43% 28 63% 23
Service 3 31 22% 35 77% 28
Service 4 26 62% 32 81% 14
Total 181 Mean 50% Mean Mean 73% Mean 24
29 yrs months

"This is the percentage response rate for all 66 direct-care staff who completed
questionnaires in 199 1.
bThis is the percentage response rate for all 57 direct-care staff who completed
questionnaires in 1993.

researchers. Possible sample bias was investigated in Service 1 by compar-

ing the age, sex and tenure of the respondent group to the age, sex and
tenure of the direct care staff group as a whole, using information gained
from staff records. Respondents were found to be representative of the
direct care staff group as a whole.
The direct care staff groups in the study consisted of a majority of rela-
tively young women, a similar distribution to that found in other studies
of direct care staff in UK community-based residential services (e.g. Allen
et al., 1990). The average tenure of the direct care staff groups was around
two years, and annual staff turnover in the services studied (15% to 32%)
was comparable to studies of other UK community residential services (de
Kock et al., 1987; Felce et al., 1993; Stenfort Kroese & Fleming, 1992).

Materials
The measures described in this study were administered to staff as part
of a larger questionnaire concerning staff distress and morale (Hatton &
Emerson, 1993). Only those measures pertinent to this study will be
described here.

Development of the shortened Ways of Coping (Revised) Questionnaire

(SWC-R)
The Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL) and the Ways of Coping
(Revised) Questionnaire (WCQ-R) were developed by Lazarus & Folkman
 COPING IN DIRECT CARE STAFF 24 1

in the USA. They have been used in several populations, including college
students (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985), middle-aged couples (Folkman
et al., 1986), student nurses (Parkes, 1984), medical students, psychiatric
outpatients and spouses of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Vitaliano
et al., 1985).
More recently, a version of the WCQ-R has been revised for use with
a UK sample (Knussen et al., 1992), and has been administered to parents
of school-age children with Down’s syndrome (Hatton et al., in press;
Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper et al., 1991; Sloper & Turner, 1994) and
parents of young children with physical disabilities (Sloper & Turner,
1991). The UK version of the WCQ-R is a self-report questionnaire con-
sisting of 63 items representing thoughts and actions which can be used
to cope with a stressful situation. All items are rated on a four-point Likert
scale (1 = Not Used, 2 = Used Somewhat, 3 = Used Quite A Bit, 4 = Used
A Great Deal).
Typically, studies have factor analysed questionnaire items to produce
a small number of subscales thought to represent distinct Ways of Coping.
This approach, however, is of limited utility for exploring direct care staff
coping strategies as mediators between potential sources of distress and
staff outcomes. Firstly, problems may arise in persuading busy direct care
staff to complete a lengthy 63-item questionnaire. Secondly, numbers of
direct care staff in community services may be relatively small, making
factor analysis unreliable (Comrey, 1973). Thirdly, reliance on factor
analytic procedures to produce subscale scores requires a significant invest-
ment in statistical and computing resources. The current study aimed to
develop a shortened version of the WCQ-R that would be relatively quick
to complete and easy to score, and that would be sufficiently robust to
show reliable associations with staff outcomes in relatively small staff
groups.
Five studies using either the WCCL or the WCQ-R with different popu-
lations (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Folkman et al., 1986; Knussen et al.,
1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991; Vitaliano et al., 1985; see also Vitaliano
et al., 1987) were used to derive the shortened version of the Ways of
Coping (Revised) questionnaire (SWC-R). All five studies factor analysed
questionnaires into a number of different subscales, representing distinct
Ways of Coping. The development of the SWC-R was conducted in two
stages. The first stage was to determine which Ways of Coping should be
represented in the SWC-R. This was conducted by examining the five
studies for common Ways of Coping subscales that contained similar items
and were reliably associated with outcome measures. The second stage
was to determine which questionnaire items should represent the Ways of
Coping subscales chosen in the first stage. Items were chosen for inclusion
242 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

if they were present in a similar Way of Coping subscale across at least

four of the five studies.
On examining the five studies, two Ways of Coping subscales were
found to be similar across all five studies. The first, Practical Coping,
involves coping directly with a stressful situation in an attempt to change
it. The second, Wishful Thinking, involves attempting to cope with one’s
emotions about a stressful situation, rather than attempting to change the
stressful situation itself. In the five studies, Practical Coping-type subscales
were reliably positively associated with adaptive outcomes, such as satisfac-
tion with life (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991) and satisfac-
tory outcomes of stressful encounters (Folkman et al., 1986). Practical
Coping-type subscales were also reliably negatively associated with malad-
aptive outcomes, such as distress (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner,
1991) and depression (Vitaliano et al., 1985; 1987). Wishful Thinking-
type subscales were reliably negatively associated with adaptive outcomes,
such as satisfaction with life (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 199l),
and were reliably positively associated with maladaptive outcomes, such
as distress (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1992), depression and
anxiety (Vitaliano et al., 1985; 1987), and unsatisfactory outcomes of
stressful encounters (Folkman et al., 1986).
Seven items, present in the appropriate subscale in at least four of the
five studies, were selected for each SWC-R subscale, giving a 14-item ques-
tionnaire designed to measure the use of Practical Coping and Wishful
Thinking. The items were placed in a random order for the SWC-R (see
Appendix for items and associated subscales). For the questionnaire, parti-
cipants were instructed to focus on how they coped with problems at work.
Scores for items within each subscale were summed to produce a subscale
score for each Way of Coping.

Social desirability
The short version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale
(Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972), a 10-item Yes-No questionnaire, was used.

Outcomes
Distress. Staff distress was measured using the Malaise Inventory, a 24-
item Yes-No questionnaire concerning physical and emotional health
(Rutter et al., 1970a, b), previously used with both parents of children with
disabilities (Sloper et al., 1991; Sloper & Turner, 1991) and direct care
staff in learning disability services (Allen et al., 1990).
Overall job satisfaction. A 17-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire con-
cerning various aspects of job satisfaction was used (Allen et al., 1990).
 COPING IN DIRECT CARE STAFF 243

Mean item scores across all 17 items were used to produce an overall job
satisfaction score.
Overall satisfaction with life. This scale was a single-item, 5-point Likert
scale concerned with the satisfaction with life in general of staff. This scale
has previously been used as a component of a Satisfaction With Life Index
for parents of children with Down's syndrome (Sloper et al., 1991;
Sloper & Turner, 1994).
Propensity to leave. This scale is a 2-item, 5-point Likert scale question-
naire concerning the reported probability of leaving the organisation within
the next 12 months (Allen et al., 1990).

Procedure
Questionnaires were administered to participants, either by setting aside
a staff training session for questionnaire completion or administering ques-
tionnaires to participants to complete in their own time and return to
researchers by post (a stamped addressed envelope was included). All
questionnaires were confidential.

Results
Internal reliability
Table 2 presents the alpha reliabilities of the Practical Coping and Wish-
ful Thinking subscales for all the services included in the study. While
there was some variation in the alpha reliability of subscales between ser-
vices, Table 2 shows that the reliability of both the Practical Coping and
Wishful Thinking subscales were broadly comparable with those found
in previous studies, and were therefore judged to have adequate internal
reliability. Table 2 also presents the mean inter-item correlations for each
subscale. As can be seen, both subscales were reliably homogeneous
according to Briggs & Cheek's (1986) criterion of a mean inter-item corre-
lation in the 0.2 to 0.4 range (cf. Knussen et al., 1992). Finally, Table 2
presents the inter-scale correlations between the Practical Coping and
Wishful Thinking subscales. In four out of six samples the scales were
independent, in the other two there was some indication of a general bias
to respond at either a high or a low level throughout the questionnaire.
Inter-scale correlations were, however, comparable with the range found in
previous studies. In summary, both subscales were shown to have adequate
internal reliability compared to previous studies using full-length versions
of the questionnaire.
244 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

Table 2 Alpha reliabilities and mean inter-item correlations of Practical Coping

and Wishful Thinking subscales, inter-scale correlations between Practical Coping
and Wishful Thinking subscales

Practical Coping Wishful Thinking Inter-scale

correlation
Alpha rely Inter-item Alpha rely Inter-item
r r

Service 1-1991 0.74 0.30 0.72 0.23 0.21

Service 1-1993a 0.76 0.31 0.52 0.15 0.17
Service 1-1993b 0.80 0.36 0.61 0.18 0.17
Service 2 0.70 0.25 0.82 0.39 0.35
Service 3 0.73 0.28 0.67 0.23 0.09
Service 4 0.80 0.36 0.54 0.14 0.46
Average 0.76 0.31 0.65 0.22 0.24
Previous Studies"
Minimum 0.68 0.35 0.72 0.32 0.01
Maximum 0.90 0.35 0.89 0.32 0.67

"Folkman & Lazarus (1985); Folkman et al. (1986); Knussen et al. (1992); Sloper & Turner
(1991); Vitaliano ef al. (1985).

Associations with social desirability and outcome measures

Some exploration of the validity of the SWC-R was explored by examin-
ing associations between subscale scores and measures of social desir-
ability, distress, overall job satisfaction, overall life satisfaction and propen-
sity to leave the organisation. Associations with social desirability are
important as a social desirability response bias may distort associations
between coping and outcome measures. Table 3 presents univariate corre-
lations between SWC-R subscale scores (Practical Coping, Wishful
Thinking) and the social desirability and outcome measures described
above for staff in each service.
Correlations for three out of the six staff groups showed a significant
negative association between Wishful Thinking subscale scores and scores
on the social desirability measure, an association found in previous studies
using the WCQ-R (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991). Regard-
ing associations with outcome measures, the Practical Coping subscale was
not significantly related to any staff outcome measure. The Wishful Think-
ing subscale was positively related to staff distress in five of the six staff
samples, negatively related to overall life satisfaction in two staff samples
and negatively related to overall job satisfaction in one staff sample.
Because of the relationship between SWC-R subscales and the social
 C OPING IN DIRECT CARE S TA F F 245

Table 3 Univariate correlations between SWC-R subscales (Practical Coping and

Wishful Thinking) and measures of social desirability, stress, overall job satisfac-
tion, overall satisfaction with life and propensity to leave the organisation

Social Stress Overall Job Overall Life Propensity

Desirability Satisfaction Satisfaction To
Leave

Service 1-1991
Practical Coping +0.16 -0.19 +0.25 +o.oo -0.16
Wishful Thinking -0.16 +0.33* +0.12 -0.38* -0.09
Service 1-1993a
Practical Coping +O.OO -0.24 -0.14 -0.18 +0.09
Wishful Thinking -0.50** +0.54** +O.OO -0.30 +0.08
Service 1-1993b
Practical Coping +0.11 +0.34 -0.01 +0.08 +0.12
Wishful Thinking -0.52** +0.48** +0.04 -0.11 -0.09
Service 2
Practical Coping -0.32 +0.12 -0.03 -0.04 -0.27
Wishful Thinking -0.16 +0.69** -0.46** -0.26 +0.24
Service 3
Practical Coping +0.07 +0.23 +0.04 -0.19 +0.02
Wishful Thinking -0.45* +0.51** -0.24 -0.37 +0.26
Service 4
Practical Coping +0.30 -0.24 +0.20 -0.09 +0.19
Wishful Thinking -0.16 +0.22 +0.05 -0.44* +0.23

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01

desirability measure, partial correlations were conducted between SWC-R

subscales and staff outcome measures, controlling for social desirability
scores (see Table 4). As Table 4 shows, the Practical Coping subscale,
after controlling for social desirability, was still not associated with any
staff outcome measure. T h e Wishful Thinking subscale, after controlling
for social desirability, was positively related to staff distress in four of the
six staff samples, negatively related to overall life satisfaction in three staff
samples, and negatively related t o overall job satisfaction in one staff
sample.

Stability and validity of the SWC-R over time

Thirty staff in Service 1 completed two questionnaires 16 months apart,
enabling the exploration of the stability of the SWC-R over time. T h e
246 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

Table 4 Partial correlations between SWC-R subscales (Practical Coping and

Wishful Thinking) and measures of stress, overall job satisfaction, overall satisfac-
tion with life and propensity to leave the organisation, controlling for social desir-
ability

Stress Overall Job Overall Life Propensity

Satisfaction Satisfaction To Leave

Service 1-1991
Practical Coping -0.15 +0.22 +o.oo -0.12
Wishful Thinking +0.30 +0.16 -0.38* -0.15
Service 1-1993a
Practical Coping -0.25 -0.14 -0.19 +0.09
Wishful Thinking +0.47* +0.11 -0.15 +0.09
Service 1-1993b
Practical Coping +0.35 -0.03 +0.09 +O. 14
Wishful Thinking +0.52** +0.14 -0.17 -0.21
Service 2
Practical Coping +0.18 -0.02 -0.06 -0.28
Wishful Thinking +0.73** -0.48** -0.32 +0.24
Service 3
Practical Coping +0.27 +0.02 -0.02 +0.05
Wishful Thinking +0.43* -0.16 -0.40* +0.13
Service 4
Practical Coping -0.19 +0.02 -0.11 +0.25
Wishful Thinking +0.19 +0.19 -0.43* +0.21

* p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

stability of the SWC-R was investigated in two ways. Firstly, paired

samples t-tests were conducted on the Practical Coping and Wishful
Thinking subscales to look for increases or decreases in coping subscale
scores between 1991 and 1993. Neither Practical Coping (t = 0.89, df =
29, p > 0.1) nor Wishful Thinking ( t = 1.08, df = 29, p > 0.1) scores had
changed significantly over the sixteen month period. The second method
of investigating stability was to examine whether patterns of responses on
the coping subscales had changed between 1991 and 1993, by calculating
test-retest alpha reliability using a strictly parallel goodness of fit model
(Norusis/SPSS Inc, 1992). These demonstrated the reliability of the Prac-
tical Coping (alpha = 0.88) and Wishful Thinking (alpha = 0.81) coping
subscales over the sixteen month period.
The predictive validity of the SWC-R was investigated by correlating
1991 coping subscale scores with 1993 outcome measures, controlling for
 COPING IN DIRECT CARE STAFF 247

both 1991 and 1993 social desirability scores. One association was found
to be significant; between 1991 Wishful Thinking scores and 1993 distress
scores ( r = 0.43, n = 30, p < 0.01).

Discussion
The reliability and some aspects of validity of the SWC-R were exam-
ined in six different samples of direct care staff in residential services for
people with learning disabilities, the aim being to produce a short and easy
to score measure of ways of coping that would produce robust associations
with relevant outcome measures.
Regarding internal reliability, both the Practical Coping and Wishful
Thinking subscales showed adequate psychometric properties in terms of
alpha reliabilities, inter-item correlations and inter-scale correlations.
While the Wishful Thinking subscale generally showed a lower level of
reliability than the Practical Coping subscale, both subscales displayed
psychometric properties broadly comparable to those found in previous
studies using longer ways of coping questionnaires (Folkman & Lazarus,
1985; Folkman et al., 1986; Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991;
Vitaliano et al., 1985), despite the relatively small numbers of staff in each
sample. Furthermore, both the Practical Coping and Wishful Thinking
subscales were shown to be highly stable and reliable over a sixeen month
period (cf. Hatton et al., in press).
As with the Knussen et al. (1992) study using the WCQ-R in parents
of children with Down’s syndrome, there was a reliable association
between scores on the Wishful Thinking subscale and scores on the social
desirability measure. While this response bias suggests that including a
social desirability measure is preferable (cf. Knussen et al., 1992), compari-
son of univariate and partial correlations (see Tables 3 and 4) indicate
that omitting such a measure is unlikely to lead to a reporting of spurious
associations between ways of coping and outcomes, making it easier for
researchers to use without complex statistical analysis.
The Wishful Thinking subscale showed a robust and reliable association
with distress, in common with previous studies of parents of children with
disabilities (Knussen et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991), and also showed
some predictive validity in being highly associated with distress levels mea-
sured sixteen months later. This strongly suggests that wishful thinking is
an important contributor to levels of distress in direct care staff, suggesting
that management intervention focused on staff coping strategies may be
useful. The Wishful Thinking subscale showed a significant association
with overall life satisfaction in three out of six staff samples (cf. Knussen
et al., 1992; Sloper & Turner, 1991), suggesting that coping strategies used
248 MENTAL HANDICAP RESEARCH

in work settings have important implications for the life of staff in general.
The general lack of association between the Wishful Thinking subscale and
measures of overall job satisfaction and propensity to leave the organisation
requires further investigation, although some research (Hatton et al.,
submitted) has begun to suggest that wishful thinking may be a generalised
coping strategy used across many areas of a person’s life, which therefore
has a stronger impact on general outcomes (e.g. general distress, overall
satisfaction with life) than more specific work-related outcomes (e.g. over-
all job satisfaction, propensity to leave an organisation, work-related
distress).
Scores on the Practical Coping subscale were not found to be associated
with any staff outcome measure. While such findings suggest that the util-
ity of the Practical Coping subscale is questionable, it is recommended that
further research using the SWC-R retains the subscale to explore possible
relationships between practical coping and other staff outcomes (e.g.
directly observed staff performance) beyond the scope of this study.
In summary, the Shortened Ways of Coping (Revised) questionnaire
would appear to be a reliable measure of the coping strategies of direct
care staff in learning disability services. While the robust associations
between the Wishful Thinking subscale and important staff outcomes indi-
cate the utility of this scale in researching direct care staff, the lack of
association between the Practical Coping subscale and staff outcome meas-
ures suggests that the utility of this subscale is more questionable. How-
ever, the brevity of the questionnaire and the ease with which it is scored
suggest that further research including the SWC-R would be worthwhile,
particularly since models of stress and coping are being increasingly used
to design services for informal carers of people with learning disabilities
(McConachie, 1994).

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Department of Health and Sense-
Midlands. Thanks are to be expressed to all the staff at the residential
facilities who gave their time to facilitate the completion of the research,
and to two anonymous referees for their constructive suggestions.

Correspondence
All correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Chris
Hatton.
 COPING IN DIRECT CARE STAFF 249

Appendix
The shortened Ways of Coping (revised) questionnaire: Items and associated
subscales.

I daydream or imagine a better time or

place than the one I am in. (Wishful Thinking)
I draw on my past experiences. (Practical Coping)
I think up a couple of different solutions to
problems. (Practical Coping)
I wish that I could change how I feel. (Wishful Thinking)
I try to come out of experiences better than
when I went in. (Practical Coping)
I wish that I could change what has
happened. (Wishful Thinking)
I try to analyse the situation in order to
understand it better. (Practical Coping)
I usually know what has to be done, so I
keep up my efforts to make things work. (Practical coping)
I take it out on other people. (Wishful Thinking)
I avoid being with people in general. (Wishful Thinking)
I have fantasies or wishes about how things
might turn out. (Wishful Thinking)
I stand my ground and fight for what I
want. (Practical Coping)
I wish that the situation would go away or
somehow be over with. (Wishful Thinking)
I make a plan of action and follow it. (Practical Coping)

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