The Cancer Behavior Inventory (CBI), a measure of self-efficacy for coping with cancer, was revised by adding a new stress management scale and reducing its length from 43 to 33 items. The 33-item CBI was administered to 280 cancer patients. A principal factors analysis with varimax rotation yielded the hypothesized seven factors (alphas in parentheses): (1) maintenance of activity and independence (alpha=0.86), (2) seeking and understanding medical information (alpha=0.88), (3) stress management (alpha=0.86), (4) coping with treatment-related side-effects (alpha=0.82), (5) accepting cancer/maintaining positive attitude (alpha=0.86), (6) affective regulation (alpha=0.81), and (7) seeking support (alpha=0.80). The alpha for the entire CBI was 0.94, the test-retest (1 week) reliability coefficient was 0.74, and correlations with measures of quality of life and coping supported its validity. The CBI may be useful to researchers and clinicians and can be integrated into a self-regulation model of coping.
Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.