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Hannawa_2024_Health Comm_Pandemic Palliatives
Journal article

Pandemic palliatives and COVID-19 coping : toward the development of a “Coping with Crisis Communications” (COCCO) scale

  • Hannawa, Annegret F ORCID Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (CAHQS), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera - European Institute for Safe Communication (EISC)
  • Spitzberg, Brian H ORCID School of Communication, San Diego State University
  • Bhusald, Aneel Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling, Texas Tech University
  • Harrimand, Abbie Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling, Texas Tech University
  • Todd, Little Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling, Texas Tech University - Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University
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  • 2024
Published in:
  • Health communication. - 2024, p. 1–18
English The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of coping strategies during global crises and demonstrated how official communications shape public responses. This study evaluates the psychometric validity of a novel pentadic “Coping with Crisis Communication” (COCCO) Scale, which categorizes coping behaviors into five behavioral responses: moving-with, moving-against, moving-outward, moving-away, and moving-inward. A national representative survey of 742 Swiss residents, conducted in February 2022, measured these coping responses to official COVID-19 communications from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and traditional Swiss news media (TNM). Items were developed to assess how participants engaged with, opposed, reached outward for support, distanced from, or internalized the messages. Confirmatory factor analyses tested multiple models (5-, 6-, 7-, and 8-factor structures) based on both the initial pentadic theory and data-driven refinements. While the original 5-factor model showed insufficient fit, a 7-factor model (moving-with, moving-toward, moving-against, moving-outward, moving-away, negative-moving-inward, positive-moving-inward) provided a satisfactory factor solution. This model exhibited measurement invariance across the three language versions of the scale (French, Italian, German) and across the two communication contexts (FOPH, TNM). The COCCO scale offers an effective, movement-based assessment of coping strategies in response to crisis communications, serving as a valuable tool for understanding public behavior during global crises.
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Language
  • English
Classification
Social work
License
CC BY
Open access status
hybrid
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Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1330147
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