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Objectives: To investigate the contribution of pre-rehabilitation appraisals of spinal cord injury and patient’s coping strategies to the variance in functional independence post discharge.

Design: Longitudinal, cohort study. Patients sustaining a spinal cord injury aged 16 or above were recruited from English and German speaking specialist spinal injuries centres. Measures of appraisals, coping strategies, mood and functional independence were administered on commencing active rehabilitation (12 weeks post injury) and following hospital discharge (1 year post injury).

Setting: Specialist spinal cord injury rehabilitation centres in England,Germany,Switzerland andIreland.

Participants: One hundred and twenty seven patients completed questionnaires at both time points. Sample age ranged between 17.5 and 64.5 with a mean age of 39.3. Demographic and injury characteristics were similar to those reported in international statistics databases.

Interventions: Not Applicable

Main Outcome Measure:  Functional Independence Measure (FIM; motor subscale).

Results: Injury characteristics, age, gender, current depression and the utilization of the coping strategy ‘social reliance’ at twelve weeks post injury explained 33.5% of the variance in motor FIM at one year post injury. Strong relationships were found between appraisals, coping styles, mood and functional outcomes.

Conclusion: The coping strategy ‘Social Reliance’ was found to contribute significantly when explaining the variance in functional outcomes. Suggestions are made to assess appraisals and coping strategies early in rehabilitation in order to provide effective interventions and additional support to those scoring highly on negative coping styles. Further research would be recommended to provide support for the relationship between dependent coping strategies and functional outcomes.