Scientific journal paper Q1
The fear of COVID-19 scale: Its structure and measurement invariance across 48 countries
Artur J. Sawicki (Sawicki, A. J.); Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska (Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M.); Julia M. Balcerowska (Balcerowska, J. M.); Monika J. Sawicka (Sawicka, M. J.); Jarosław Piotrowski (Piotrowski, J.); Constantine Sedikides (Sedikides, C.); Peter K. Jonason (Jonason, P. K.); John Maltby (Maltby, J.); Mladen Adamovic (Adamovic, M.); Attisso Mathieu Désiré Agada (Agada, A. M. D.); Oli Ahmed (Ahmed, O.); Laith Al-Shawaf (Al-Shawaf, L.); Seth Christopher Yaw Appiah (Appiah, S. C. Y.); Rahkman Ardi1 (Ardi, R.); Zana Hasan Babakr (Babakr, Z. H.); Sergiu Bălţătescu (Bălţătescu, S.); Mario Bonato (Bonato, M.); Richard G. Cowden (Cowden, R. G.); Phatthanakit Chobthamkit (Chobthamkit, P.); Laura De Pretto (De Pretto, L.); Valdiney V. Gouveia (Gouveia, V. V.); Carmen Haretche (Haretche, C.); Dzintra Iliško (Iliško, D.); John Jamir Benzon Aruta (Aruta, J. J. B.); Fanli Jia (Jia, F.); Veljko Jovanovic (Jovanovic, V.); Tomislav Jukic (Jukic, T.); Shanmukh V. Kamble (Kamble, S. V.); Narine Khachatryan (Khachatryan, N.); Martina KlicperovaBaker (Klicperova-Baker, M.); Metodi Koralov (Koralov, M.); Monika Kovacs (Kovacs, M.); Mabelle Kretchner (Kretchner, M.); Aitor Larzabal Fernandez (Fernandez, A. L.); Kadi Liik (Liik, K.); Najma Iqbal Malik (Malik, N. I.); Karine Malysheva (Malysheva, K.); Chanki Moon (Moon, C.); Stephan Muehlbache (Muehlbacher, S.); Sofya Nartova-Bochaver (Nartova-Bochaver, S.); Jorge Torres-Marín (Torres-Marín, J.); Emrah Özsoy (Özsoy, E.); Joonha Park (Park, J.); Elena Piccinelli (Piccinelli, E.); Jano Ramos-Diaz (Ramos-Diaz, J.); Ognjen Riđic (Riđic, O.); Adil Samekin (Samekin, A.); Andrej Starc (Starc, A.); Trà T. T. Kiêu (Kiêu, T. T. T.); Robert Tomsik (Tomsik, R.); Charles S. Umeh (Umeh, C. S.); Eduardo Wills-Herrera (Wills-Herrera, E.); Anna Wlodarczyk (Wlodarczyk, A.); Zahir Vally (Vally, Z.); Somayeh Zand (Zand, S.); et al.
Journal Title
Psychological Assessment
Year (definitive publication)
2022
Language
English
Country
United States of America
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Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countries (N = 14,558). The findings indicate that the FCV-19S has a somewhat problematic structure, yet the one-factor solution is replicable across cultural contexts and could be used in studies that compare people who vary on gender and educational level. The validity of the scale is supported by a consistent pattern of positive correlations with perceived stress and general anxiety. However, given the unclear structure of the FCV-19S, we recommend using latent factor scores, instead of raw scores, especially in cross-cultural comparisons.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Fear of COVID,Measurement invariance,Cross-cultural studies,Coronavirus
  • Basic Medicine - Medical and Health Sciences
  • Clinical Medicine - Medical and Health Sciences
  • Psychology - Social Sciences
Funding Records
Funding Reference Funding Entity
2017/26/E/HS6/00282 National Science Centre Poland
2019/35/B/HS6/00682 National Science Centre Poland
PPN/ULM/2019/1/00019/U/00001 National Science Centre Poland