Examining the Brief Religious Coping (B-RCOPE) Instrument in a Sample of Emerging Latinx Adult Immigrants

The Brief Religious Coping Scale (B-RCOPE) is a widely recognized instrument for assessing how individuals draw upon religious coping strategies in response to life stressors. Religious coping is particularly salient among many in the Latinx community; however, shifting settlement patterns and increasing sociodemographic diversity among Latinx immigrants in the United States (U.S.) necessitate a more nuanced approach to its measurement; (2) Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the religious coping of a growing but understudied population—Latinx emerging adults (ages 18–29; N = 150)—and conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the English-language B-RCOPE within this group; (3) Results: Findings revealed that participants in our sample made only modest use of religious coping to manage life challenges. Analyses supported the original two-dimensional factor structure (i.e., positive and negative religious coping) of the English B-RCOPE, while also indicating that a more parsimonious 12-item version performs comparably to the full 14 items; (4) Conclusions: This study documents the usability and appropriateness of the abbreviated version and offers practitioners a culturally relevant and efficient tool for examining religious coping practices and trends among Latinx emerging adults.