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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to describe the psychometric characteristics of the Academic Coping Strategies Scale (ACSS), which was designed to assess college students’ coping strategies within the context of a specific academic stressor. This article will present results of analyses of factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest stability, and validity evidence based on relationships with other variables. Results suggest that items can be grouped into three easily interpretable factors (i.e., Approach, Avoidance, and Social Support) and that preliminary psychometric data are mostly favorable. The article will also describe limitations of the study, directions for future research, and potential applications of the ACSS. An important next step in the development of the ACSS will be to modify the scale for use with middle and high school students so that professionals working in the schools will have a method of assessing academic coping strategies among youth.
Keywords coping, postsecondary, psychometrics, test development
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