Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Adaptation of the School Failure Coping Scale

ABSTRACT This study presents the first large‐scale Spanish adaptation and psychometric validation of the School Failure Coping Scale for Mexican high school students. Undertaken to address significant methodological limitations in the original validation, this research provides a rigorous evaluation of the scale's factor structure, reliability, and measurement invariance. Analyses confirmed a robust four‐factor model that systematically distinguishes between adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies across task‐oriented and socially‐focused dimensions. The final 16‐item scale demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including excellent overall reliability and full measurement invariance across gender and educational grade levels. The results validate a theoretically sound and culturally‐grounded tool that can be used by educators and school psychologists to reliably identify students’ coping profiles, enabling early intervention and tailored support to mitigate the risk of school dropout in Mexico and similar Latin American contexts.