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 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 sevenitem scale. More specifically, reliability values such as internal consistency (α = .82) andInternational Journal of Mental Health and Addiction https://doi.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).

The present cross-sectional study examined the actor-partner interdependence effect of fear of COVID-19 among Iranian pregnant women and their husbands and its association with their mental health and preventive behaviours during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A total of 290 pregnant women and their husbands (N = 580) were randomly selected from a list of pregnant women in the Iranian Integrated Health System and were invited to respond to psychometric scales assessing fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. The findings demonstrated significant dyadic relationships between husbands and their pregnant wives' fear of COVID-19, mental health, and preventive behaviours. Pregnant wives’ actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours but not anxiety. Moreover, a husband actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. Additionally, there were significant partner effects observed for both the pregnant wives and their husbands concerning all outcomes. The present study used a cross-sectional design and so is unable to determine the mechanism or causal ordering of the effects. Also, the data are mainly based on self-reported measures which have some limitations due to its potential for social desirability and recall biases. Based on the findings, couples may benefit from psychoeducation that focuses on the effect of mental health problems on pregnant women and the foetus.

Objectives. Rates of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections have rapidly increased worldwide and reached pandemic proportions. A suite of preventive behaviours have been recommended to minimize risk of COVID-19 infection in the general population. The present study utilized an integrated social cognition model to explain COVID-19 preventive behaviours in a sample from the Iranian general population. Design. The study adopted a three-wave prospective correlational design. Methods. Members of the general public (N = 1,718, M age = 33.34, SD = 15.77, male = 796, female = 922) agreed to participate in the study. Participants completed selfreport measures of demographic characteristics, intention, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, and action self-efficacy at an initial data collection occasion. One week later, participants completed self-report measures of maintenance self-efficacy, action planning and coping planning, and, a further week later, measures of COVID-19 preventive behaviours. Hypothesized relationships among social cognition This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

For patients with cancer, sleep disturbance is commonplace. Using classical test theory and Rasch analyses, the present study compared two commonly used psychometric instruments for insomnia-Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI)-among patients with advanced cancer. Through convenience sampling, patients with cancer at stage III or IV (n=573; 326 males; mean age=61.3 years; SD=10.7) from eight oncology units of university hospitals in Iran participated in the study. All the participants completed the AIS, ISI, Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Additionally, 433 participants wore an Actigraph device for two continuous weekdays. Classical test theory and Rasch analysis both supported the construct validity for AIS (factor loadings from confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] = 0.61 to 0.87; test-retest reliability = 0.72 to 0.82; infit mean square [MnSq] = 0.81 to 1.17; outfit MnSq = 0.79 to 1.14) and for ISI (factor loadings from CFA = 0.61 to 0.81; test-retest reliability = 0.72 to 0.82; infit MnSq = 0.72 to 1.14; outfit MnSq = 0.76 to 1.11). Both AIS and ISI had significant associations with ESAS, HADS, GHQ-12, ESS, and PSQI, as well as having good sensitivity and specificity. Significant differences in the actigraphy measure were found between insomniacs and non-insomniacs based on AIS or ISI score. With promising results, healthcare providers can use either AIS or ISI to understand the insomnia of patients with advanced cancer.

The Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS) can be used in screening for the risk of smartphone addiction. This study aimed to validate a Persian version of the SABAS using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Rasch analysis, and latent class analysis (LCA). In a sample of 3807 Iranian adolescents, CFAs were used to confirm the factor structure of SABAS, Rasch models were used to examine the unidimensionality of SABAS, and LCAs were used to classify the adolescents in terms of application preferences and smartphone application-based addiction. The unidimensional structure of SABAS was supported by CFA and Rasch model. LCA classified the sample into three subgroups (i.e., low, medium, high) in terms of risk of smartphone addiction. This study showed the unidimensionality of the Persian SABAS with robust psychometric properties. It can be used by healthcare providers in screening for risk of addiction to smartphone applications and provide early intervention if necessary.