COPING STRATEGIES AND RISK PERCEPTION IN EMERGENCY AND SYSTEMATIC CRISIS SITUATIONS. DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SCALE (CORE)

In recent years, a pivotal challenge in safeguarding mental health and ensuring worker safety has been the focus on identifying and empowering protective factors while addressing psychosocial risk factors in response to the stresses encountered in daily life. Coping strategies have emerged as a central point in this context. The development and validation of a scale measuring coping strategies during particularly risky situations, such as those experienced by certain professions during the pandemic, could represent a significant step toward a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing the utilization of coping strategies. The study was conducted on a sample of 872 individuals (398 men, 474 women) recruited toward the end of the pandemic, primarily involving workers who found themselves managing risky situations. The results, revealed a four-factor first-order structure and two second-order factors, indicating distinct dimensions of coping strategies employed by individuals when facing negative life events perceived as high-risk. Additional validation included a gender invariance analysis, confirming the scale was similarly perceived by both genders. Convergent validity was assessed by correlating the CORE's (Coping Orientations to Risky Events) subscales and higher-order factors with the Brief COPE scale's approach and avoidance coping components, ensuring they measured the same constructs.