Table 1.

Principal Component Analysis of Brief COPE items

Brief COPE items	Brief COPE components
	1 r	2 r	3 r	4 r	Component categorisation
1. Active coping	0.58			0.39	1
2. Planning	0.60		0.32	0.42	1
3. Positive reframing			0.64		3
4. Acceptance	0.43		0.50		3
5. Humour			0.74		3
6. Religion				0.84	4
7. Using emotional support	0.87				1
8. Using instrumental support	0.89				1
9. Self-distraction			0.54		3
10. Denial		0.56			2
11. Venting		0.58			2
12. Substance use		0.66			2
13. Behavioural disengagement		0.76			2

Rotated component matrix (Pearson’s correlations r>0.30 are displayed) (n=192).

*Brief COPE components: component 1 (exploiting support to take action) includes items 1, 2, 7, 8; component 2 (behavioural disengagement) includes items 10, 11, 12, 13; component 3 (humour and positive reframing) includes items 3, 4, 5, 9; component 4 (turning to religion) includes items 6. Item 14 (Brief COPE) was not included in any component, but used separately, based on empirical groundings.