Open AccessValidation of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: its Association with Acute Stress and Coping
Author(s) -
José Antonio Piqueras,
María Teresa Gómez-Gómez,
Juan C. Marzo,
P. Gómez-Mir,
Raquel Falcó,
Bárbara Valenzuela,
Raquel Falcó,
Alfonso López-Núñez,
Agustín Ernesto Martínez-González,
Juan C. Marzo,
Ornela Mateu,
Beatriz Moreno-Amador
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of mental health and addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.702
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1557-1882
pISSN - 1557-1874
DOI - 10.1007/s11469-021-00615-x
Subject(s) - health psychology , covid-19 , coping (psychology) , psychology , clinical psychology , perceived stress scale , public health , association (psychology) , stress (linguistics) , psychiatry , medicine , psychotherapist , virology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , nursing , linguistics , philosophy , outbreak
The COVID-19 is a "unique" stressor, which can produce physical and psychological trauma. Coping styles can buffer this psychological impact. Consequently, this paper aims to psychometrically adapt the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) to Spanish and examines the relationships between FCV-19S, stress response, and coping strategies. The sample comprised a convenience sample of 1146 participants (12-83 years), 880 from Spain (76.8%), and 266 from Dominican Republic (23.2%). Overall, the findings support a one-factor structure for FCV-19S, consisting of 7-items, and was invariant across age, sex, occupational status, and cross-national. Therefore, indicating evidences of construct validity. Evidences of reliability were also observed (Cronbach's α = .86, McDonald's ω = .86, Guttmann's λ 6 = .86, greatest lower bound = .91, composite reliability = .85, and average variance extracted = .44). Moreover, as regards criterion-related validity, the mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between FCV-19S and acute stress was positive and high, with maladaptive coping styles mediating the relationship, and with a stronger mediation for men. The findings give evidences of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of FCV-19S among Spanish-speaker participants, which provides the chance of cross-cultural studies.