Asia-Pacifc Social Science Review 18(1) 2018, pp. 111–126 Copyright © 2018 by De La Salle University The Development of the Filipino Coping Strategies Scale John Robert C. Rilveria University of the Philippines–Diliman Contact: jcrilveria@up.edu.ph Abstract: The development of the Filipino Coping Strategies scale was based on the qualitative data on the resilience of Filipinos and the ways by which they cope with stressful life experiences and the quantitative data on foreign measures of coping. Integration of both data led to the formulation of nine coping strategies: cognitive reappraisal (pagsusuri), social support (paghingi ng tulong), problem-solving (pagtugon), religiosity (pagkarelihiyoso), tolerance (pagtitiis), emotional release (paglabas ng saloobin), overactivity (pagmamalabis), relaxation/recreation (paglilibang), and substance use (pagbibisyo). Initially, the scale was composed of 45 items with fve items under each domain. This was pilot tested to 627 male and female Filipinos aged 18 above. Reliability analysis revealed items that are internally consistent with each other resulting in the reduction of items to 37. Furthermore, construct validity was established via a) factor analysis through principal components analysis extraction method and varimax rotation method and b) test for convergent validity by correlating each domain of the Filipino Coping Strategies scale with the corresponding domains of Ways of Coping by Folkman and Lazarus and the COPE Inventory by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub. Independent samples t-test revealed signifcant differences among males and females in each coping strategy which served as the basis for norm groups. The Filipino Coping Strategies scale is a four-point Likert scale which aims to measure the coping strategies of Filipinos towards stress and generates a coping dispositional profle which can be used to aid in the assessment of coping behaviors. Keywords: coping strategies, reliability analysis, construct validity, factor analysis, coping dispositional profle People experience stress throughout their lifespan. At home, in school, at work, or in any situation when dealing with people and with life in general, everyone has an everyday stressful encounter. Such experiences of stress can be physical or mental ranging from mundane to life-threatening effects on the body (immune-related diseases) and the mind (mental disorders). It is only through the process of “coping” that people can overcome the stress and prevent it from becoming worse. Different coping strategies are used; some are preferred because these are what worked for them. These preferred coping strategies vary from one cultural group to another. Up to this date, there are still ongoing researches exploring and identifying ways of coping in different specifc cultural settings. In the Philippine context, Filipinos keep on receiving compliments about how resilient they are because they are all able to cope with very stressful situations such as calamity and poverty (Tan, 2006). The country was even ranked as the 20 th happiest RESEARCH ARTICLE