Development and Validation of an Indigenous Scale of the Fear Contracting COVID-19

Authors

  • Author- Anam Ali, Sadia Abbas, Asad Ali Khan, Sami Ullah, Ali Salman Khan

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has negative psychological impact on people and led to fear, anxiety, stress and depression among general population. So, the present study is aimed to develop and validate a scale for assessing fear related to COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Items of the scale were constructed from existing literature of COVID-19 and evaluation from experts. Descriptive study was conducted on 980 participants using convenient sampling technique.

Results

  Sample was collected from general population of age 18 years and above. Demographic questionnaire and Fear contracting COVID-19 scale was administered to measure the intensity of fear experienced by people under COVID-19 pandemic situation. A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on 4 items with Varimax rotation to check the factor structure of the Fear construct. One factor had eigenvalue over Kaiser's criterion of 1 and explained a cumulative variance of 63.77%. Factor loading of all items was strong (0.76 to 0.83). Cronbach alpha of the scale was 0.82.

Conclusion

  Thus, it can be concluded that Fear contracting COVID-19 is a reliable and valid scale to assess fear of COVID-19 among general population.

Keywords:

COVID-19, Fear, Pakistan, Reliability and Validity, Tool development

Published

2021/07/03