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Comprehensive Coping Inventory (CCI-20)3

Comprehensive Coping Inventory (CCI-20) Test

Understand how you cope with stress in just 4 minutes. Get clear insights into avoidance, worry, reappraisal, and stress tolerance to guide focused support and faster progress.

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Questions: 204 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

13,859 views

1,023 completions

823 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

20/25

Stress Intolerance (SI)

Measures how strongly a person believes they cannot cope with stressful circumstances and the emotions they evoke.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 20 falls in the High range, suggesting a strong tendency to feel overwhelmed by stress and doubt one’s ability to manage it.

example score

18/25

Cognitive Reappraisal (CR)

Measures how often you tend to interpret neutral or safe situations as threatening and then mentally reframe them in a threat-focused way under stress.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 18 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a noticeable tendency to misread neutral situations as threats, though not at the highest level on this scale.

example score

17/25

Worry (W)

Measures the tendency toward persistent worry and negative forecasting that can disrupt effective problem-solving under stress.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 12: Low | 13 – 19: Moderate | 20 – 25: High

A score of 17 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a noticeable tendency toward ongoing worry and negative expectations that may sometimes make it harder to focus on solutions when stressed.

example score

16/25

Avoidance (A)

Measures how strongly a person tends to reduce anxiety by avoiding triggering people, places, situations, objects, or internal sensations.

Low avoidance

Moderate avoidance

High avoidance

5 – 11: Low avoidance | 12 – 18: Moderate avoidance | 19 – 25: High avoidance

A score of 16 falls in the Moderate avoidance range, suggesting avoidance is used fairly often as a way to manage anxiety-provoking triggers.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Anxious or overwhelmed adults

41%OF USERS

People feeling persistent stress, worry, or panic take it to see whether they cope by avoiding, overthinking, or struggling to tolerate stress.

Clients starting therapy

34%OF USERS

People beginning counseling use it to quickly map their default coping style and set clearer therapy goals for everyday triggers.

Clinicians screening coping patterns

25%OF USERS

Psychologists and therapists use it as a brief intake measure to identify maladaptive coping mechanisms and guide treatment focus.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Stress Intolerance (SI)

Average

13.3

Normal range

10 — 16.5

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Cognitive Reappraisal (CR)

Average

10.3

Normal range

7.5 — 13.2

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Anxiety (A)

Average

Normal range

11.1 — 16.8

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Avoidance (A)

Average

19.2

Normal range

16.3 — 22

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

The items in this questionnaire are intended to help identify different approaches to problem solving. When completing this questionnaire, think about difficult situations and stressful events you have experienced. For each item, provide the most accurate rating possible based on how often you use the strategies described or experience the feelings indicated. There are no right or wrong answers; therefore, select the response that most accurately reflects your current state rather than the one that seems most acceptable to you or to most people. Rate your state and behavior on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 indicates that you do not use the strategy at all / do not experience such feelings, and 5 indicates that you rely on the described strategy / experience the described sensations very often.

- 1: Do not use
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5: Very often
- 1: Not at all
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5: Very often
- 1: Never
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5: Very often

These are 3 of the 20 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Comprehensive Coping Inventory (CCI-20) Test - Symptoms and Signs

cbt

defense mechanisms

Coping responses to stress are often habitual and may influence adjustment and symptom maintenance. The Comprehensive Coping Inventory (CCI-20) is a brief self-report measure designed to characterize common coping patterns used in response to stressful experiences.

The instrument includes 20 items and typically takes about 4 minutes to complete. It provides an estimate of coping tendencies across broad domains commonly described in clinical formulations (e.g., avoidance, worry, cognitive reappraisal, and low stress tolerance), supporting discussion of coping strengths and potential targets for intervention.

The Comprehensive Coping Inventory (CCI-20) may be used in clinical and counseling settings as an adjunct to intake, case conceptualization, and monitoring of coping-related change over time; results should be interpreted in the context of presenting concerns and other assessment data.

Author: R. S. Lazarus, S. Folkman

Literature: Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 1980.; Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1989.