Validation of the proactive coping scale in a sample of Chinese population

The purpose of this study was to validate the Proactive Coping Scale in a Chinese population sample. A total of 313 college students participated in Taiwan in the study. They completed the Chinese version of the Proactive Coping Scale (PCS), Self Esteem Scale (SES), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) and depression and anxiety subscale of Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL90-R). The results demonstrated that items of the PCS had good internal reliability, factorial validity and construct validity except for the second item (i.e., I try to let things work out on their own). The second item implies the meaning of “let-it-happen in a natural way”, which might have a different interpretation in Western culture from the prevalent proactive coping style that was observed in Chinese culture. Therefore, the study suggested the second item of PCS should be deleted while measuring the Chinese proactive coping style.