Coping strategies are mechanisms and processes (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) that an individual uses to deal with internal and external stressors. They are relevant in home care by informal caregivers.
The importance of coping strategies is primarily based on Lazarus and Folkman’s “Transactional Model of Stress and Coping”, that distinguishes between two types of coping strategies: emotion-focused and problem-focused coping (Lazarus, 1966; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Carver and colleagues (1989) expanded the “Transactional Model of Stress and Coping” with dysfunctional (“unfavorable”) strategies that can operate alongside the functional (“favorable”) emotion- and problem-focused coping mechanisms.
The COPE 6, developed by Lauer et al. (2026), encompasses functional and dysfunctional coping strategies, drawing on Frydenberg’s (2014) definition. Functional coping strategies involve strategies directly addressing the challenges of the situation, such as those that arise in the context of home care. Dysfunctional coping strategies, on the other hand, involve a response to the situation that is “unfavorable” in the long term.
The COPE 6 is based on Carver’s (1997) Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) Inventory, which has been validated and translated multiple times. Nevertheless, the Brief COPE shows a need for further development. To address this, the COPE 6 was developed and validated (Lauer et al., 2026). The COPE 6 comprises only six items and is therefore very time-efficient to administer.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. Journal of personality and social psychology, 56(2), 267.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2012). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.
Lauer, N., Graessel, E., Hinkl, P., Rohleder, N., & Pendergrass, A. (2026). Coping strategies in challenging situations among informal caregivers: validation of the newly developed six-item German short version of the Brief COPE Inventory (COPE 6). BMC psychology.
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping (Vol. 445). Springer.
Six-Item Short Version of the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) Inventory (COPE 6)