The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Validation in Spanish university students
Autor
Martínez-Lorca, Manuela
Martínez-Lorca, Alberto
Criado- Álvarez, Juan Jose
Cabañas Armesilla, Ma. Dolores
Latorre, Jose M
Institución
Resumen
The emergence of the COVID-19 and its consequences has led to fears, worries, and
anxiety among individuals worldwide. Recently, Ahorsu et al. (2020) developed the
Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). The present study aimed to translate and validate
the FCV-19S in Spanish university students.
The sample comprised 606 Spanish´undergraduates with a mean age of 21.59 years old.
We also used a six items from the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) by van
Knippenberg, Duivenvoorden, Bonke & Passchiner (1990).
The Fear of COVID-19 scale used for the present survey evidenced a good alpha
measure of internal consistency or reliability analysis with ordinal alpha and ordinal
omega. Seven items with acceptable corrected item-total correlation were retained and
further confirmed by significant and strong factor loadings. Concurrent validity was
supported by the six items of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).
The Fear of COVID-19 Scale, a seven-item scale, has a stable unidimensional structure
with robust psychometric properties. It is reliable and valid in assessing fear of COVID19 among the Spanish university students.