The Coping with Identity Threat Scale: Development and Validation in a University Student Sample

ABSTRACT

Identity process theory focuses on the impact of individual and social change on human identity and the coping strategies that are employed in response to it. In this article, the psychometric properties of the Coping with Identity Threat Scale (CITS), which is designed to assess coping styles in response to particular types of identity threat, are described. Four hundred and thirty-one university students completed the CITS and additional measures of identity threat and psychological distress. A factor analysis indicated that the CITS comprises 5 factors (social engagement, concealment/pretense, denial, self-change, and re-thinking/planning), which accounted for 56.56% of the variance. These factors reflect distinct coping styles, each of which manifests acceptable to good internal consistency and satisfactory concurrent validity with relevant variables. Multiple regression indicated that threats to the distinctiveness principle were associated with the denial, social engagement, and re-thinking/planning coping styles, while threats to self-esteem and self-efficacy were associated with the concealment/pretense and denial coping styles. It is suggested that coping styles are activated in accordance with type of identity threat and that coping styles can be predicted if we understand how particular events and situations are likely to impact identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity process theory
• identity threat
• coping styles
• coping with identity threat scale

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Editor Dr Renee Galliher, two anonymous reviewers and Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell for their thorough and constructive comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.