Development and Initial Validation of the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory

This article describes the development and validation of the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory (ACSI). The ACSI is a 30-item measure of the culture-specific coping strategies used by African Americans in stressful situations and is grounded in an African-centered conceptual framework. Findings from a principal components factor analysis conducted with a sample of African American adults (N = 180) supported a four-factor model as best representing the culture-specific coping behaviors of the group. A content review of the factors suggested the following dimensions of coping behaviors: cognitive/emotional debriefing, spiritual-centered coping, collective coping, and ritual-centered coping. Using a separate sample of African Americans (N = 220), the ACSI was subjected to a confirmatory factor analytic procedure to establish whether the four-dimension model of coping adequately fit the data. This procedure indicated that the four-factor oblique model was the best fit. The ACSI also demonstrated adequate internal consistency and concurrent validity. The authors discuss limitations of the study and implications for future research.