The Italian Adaptation and Validation of the Climate Change Coping Scale (CCCS): Assessing Coping Strategies for the Climate Emergency Among Young Adults
Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our time. Its increasingly
visible effects make it a global worry and a chronic stressor, especially for specific developmental
targets such as young adults. This study outlines the process of the Italian
adaptation and validation of the Climate Change Coping Scale (CCCS), an instrument that
examines three distinct coping strategies for addressing climate change. Study I, conducted
with a sample of 230 Italian young adults (42.6% males; 57.4% females), explores the latent
structure of the instrument using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Parallel Analysis
(PA) and outlines the preliminary psychometric properties of the CCCS. A distinct sample
of 500 Italian young adults (38.6% males; 61.4% females) was selected for Study II, which
presents the results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), supporting a first-order
factor structure with three correlated dimensions. These dimensions, as in the original
scale, are labeled ’Meaning-Focused Coping’ (five items), ’Problem-Centered Coping’ (five
items), and ’De-Emphasizing/Avoidance Coping’ (six items). The internal reliability of the
CCCS, the measurement of invariance between males and females, and its discriminant
and convergent validity are also described. Finally, significant differences in the levels of
the three identified coping strategies are presented and discussed in relation to sociodemographic
variables, including gender, political orientation, occupational and relationship
status, and participation in environmental organizations. Overall, the results of Studies I
and II highlight the reliability, validity, and robustness of the Italian version of the Climate
Change Coping Scale
