38
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Fear of COVID-19 scale: Psychometric characteristics, reliability and validity in the Israeli population

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Highlights

          • The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to lead to broad psychological effects, which should be considered when performing studies assessing mental health.

          • Only a few studies have thus far have utilized validated scales to assess the influence of the pandemic on the population's mental health, partially due to the lack of knowledge regarding their psychometric properties.

          • The Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) is a recently developed scale to assess different aspects of the fear of the pandemic.

          • When evaluating the psychometric properties of the scale in a large normative sample (n = 639) of participants in Israel, the scale showed good internal reliability and demonstrated association with stress, anxiety, and depression.

          • These results indicate that the scale can be utilized in studies assessing the effects of the pandemic on the population's mental health.

          Abstract

          Mental health clinicians worldwide have been expressing concerns regarding the broad psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, only a few studies have thus far evaluated the degree of fear of COVID-19, partially due to the lack of validated measures. In this study we evaluated the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), recently developed to assess different aspects of the fear of the pandemic, in a normative population of participants in Israel. Participants (n = 639) were asked to complete the FCV-19S scale, as well as to report anxiety, depression, and stress levels using validated scales. The results a unidimensional factor structure of the FCV-19S which explained 53.71% of the variance. When forcing a two-factor structure model, the analysis revealed two factors pertaining to emotional fear reactions and symptomatic expressions of fear. Gender, sociodemographic status, chronic illness, being in an at-risk group, and having a family member dying of COVID-19 were positively associated with fear of COVID-19. The measure was associated with anxiety, stress and depression. These results suggest that the FCV-19S has good psychometric properties, and can be utilized in studies assessing the effects of the pandemic on the population's mental health.

          Related collections

          Most cited references18

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China

          Highlights • Methods of guiding students to effectively and appropriately regulate their emotions during public health emergencies and avoid losses caused by crisis events have become an urgent problem for colleges and universities. Therefore, we investigated and analyzed the mental health status of college students during the epidemic for the following purposes. (1) To evaluate the mental situation of college students during the epidemic; (2) to provide a theoretical basis for psychological interventions with college students; and (3) to provide a basis for the promulgation of national and governmental policies.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: found
            Is Open Access

            A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: implications and policy recommendations

            The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic emerged in Wuhan, China, spread nationwide and then onto half a dozen other countries between December 2019 and early 2020. The implementation of unprecedented strict quarantine measures in China has kept a large number of people in isolation and affected many aspects of people’s lives. It has also triggered a wide variety of psychological problems, such as panic disorder, anxiety and depression. This study is the first nationwide large-scale survey of psychological distress in the general population of China during the COVID-19 epidemic.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and Initial Validation

              Background The emergence of the COVID-19 and its consequences has led to fears, worries, and anxiety among individuals worldwide. The present study developed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) to complement the clinical efforts in preventing the spread and treating of COVID-19 cases. Methods The sample comprised 717 Iranian participants. The items of the FCV-19S were constructed based on extensive review of existing scales on fears, expert evaluations, and participant interviews. Several psychometric tests were conducted to ascertain its reliability and validity properties. Results After panel review and corrected item-total correlation testing, seven items with acceptable corrected item-total correlation (0.47 to 0.56) were retained and further confirmed by significant and strong factor loadings (0.66 to 0.74). Also, other properties evaluated using both classical test theory and Rasch model were satisfactory on the seven-item scale. More specifically, reliability values such as internal consistency (α = .82) and test–retest reliability (ICC = .72) were acceptable. Concurrent validity was supported by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (with depression, r = 0.425 and anxiety, r = 0.511) and the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale (with perceived infectability, r = 0.483 and germ aversion, r = 0.459). Conclusion The Fear of COVID-19 Scale, a seven-item scale, has robust psychometric properties. It is reliable and valid in assessing fear of COVID-19 among the general population and will also be useful in allaying COVID-19 fears among individuals.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Psychiatry Res
                Psychiatry Res
                Psychiatry Research
                Published by Elsevier B.V.
                0165-1781
                1872-7123
                15 May 2020
                15 May 2020
                : 113100
                Affiliations
                [a ]Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
                [b ]Shalvata Mental Health Center, Hod Hasharon, affiliated with the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel
                [c ]Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Canada.
                [d ]Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, Israel
                Author notes
                [* ]Corresponding author: Dana Tzur Bitan, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel. datatz@ 123456ariel.ac.il
                Article
                S0165-1781(20)31318-4 113100
                10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113100
                7227556
                32425276
                92597225-ce30-4911-885f-a4b0674660d8
                © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.

                Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

                History
                : 8 May 2020
                : 12 May 2020
                : 12 May 2020
                Categories
                Article

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                fear,covid-19,coronavirus,anxiety,stress,depression
                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                fear, covid-19, coronavirus, anxiety, stress, depression

                Comments

                Comment on this article