Coping with cancer: the evidence for the temporal stability of the French-Canadian version of the Coping with Health Injuries and Problems (CHIP)

The literature suggests that coping is a moderating factor between stress and health problems. To date only a few questionnaires on coping with health problems are available. However they have been developed to assess coping with only one specific health problem. The Coping with Health Injuries and Problems (CHIP; Endler and Parker, 1992; Endler et al., 1993) has been developed to assess coping strategies with a variety of health problems and injuries. This report examines the temporal stability and the internal consistency reliability of the CHIP. A sample of 50 men with prostate cancer and 110 women with breast cancer were administered the French-Canadian version of the CHIP twice, with an interval of two weeks between the two administrations. The mean scale score at time 1 and time 2 were virtually identical. A high correlation was found between the two administrations. These results suggest that the CHIP is an instrument with excellent temporal stability (test-retest reliability). The internal consistency reliability was also quite high.