Does the Danish version of the Spinal Cord Lesion-related Coping Strategies Questionnaire measure what we think it measures? A triangulated mixed-methods validation approach.

Study Design: Triangulated mixed-methods validation study.

Objectives: To validate the Danish version of the Spinal Cord Lesion-related Coping Strategies Questionnaire (SCL-CSQ).

Setting: Community in Denmark.

Methods: Participants were invited via a patient organization and its specialized hospital. Eligibility criteria were having a spinal cord injury (SCI), being 18 years or older, and able to understand and respond in Danish. Quantitative data were collected to determine internal consistency and criterion validity of the three subscales of SCL-CSQ, i.e., acceptance, fighting spirit, and social reliance. The Three-Step Test-Interview approach was employed to determine whether items measured what they were intended to measure (i.e., construct validity based on response processes).

Results: The quantitative sample consisted of 107 participants, and the interview sample comprised 11 participants. The acceptance and fighting spirit subscales showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.72 and 0.76 respectively) and satisfactory criterion validity (expected correlations with quality of life and depression). The social reliance subscale showed inadequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.58) and criterion validity. All fighting spirit items and all but one acceptance items were interpreted congruently by most participants. Conversely, two social reliance items were only interpreted congruently by 9 and 27%.

Conclusion: The acceptance and fighting spirit subscales of the Danish version of the SCL-CSQ showed good psychometric properties, while the social reliance subscale showed serious issues and should be revised. Researchers and clinicians are urged to reflect on these findings when revising the SCL-CSQ or adapting it to other languages, cultural contexts, and rehabilitation settings.