Psychometric Validation of the Indonesian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Personality Traits Predict the Fear of COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health crisis that has generated fear and negative psychological consequences. The present study evaluated the validity and factor structure of Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) among a sample from the general Indonesian population. The English version of the FCV-19S was translated and back-translated into Indonesian language, followed by a pilot study. Using convenience sampling method, a total of 728 participants completed an online survey distributed on various social media platforms. The survey included the FCV-19S, personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The Indonesian FCV-19S had very good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega) and composite reliability (alpha = 0.88, omega = .86, composite reliability = .87). Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test construct validity (χ2/df = 2.51, CFI = .984, SRMR = .028, PCLOSE = .15 > .05, RMSEA = .06, 90% CI [.03, .09]). As for criterion-related validity, the FCV-19S score positively correlated with the score on PHQ-9, GAD-7, negative affect, and neuroticism and negatively correlated with extraversion. Negative affect was identified as the most important predictor of the fear of COVID-19. Personality traits also predicted the fear of COVID-19. The findings provide evidence that the FCV-19S is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing fear generated by COVID-19 among a healthy Indonesian-speaking population.

Parallel Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Hungarian Fear Of Covid-19 Scale In A Large General Population Sample: A Psychometric And Dimensionality Evaluation

“…Recent study provides a dimensionality, reliability and validity assessment using one & two-model parallel exploratory and con rmatory factor analysis. Our results are consistent with the previous ndings (11,(32)(33)(34), emphasising that FCV-19 has reliable and valid measurement properties.…”

The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study

“…Positive emotions may contribute to a greater tendency to undertake healthcare behaviors (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2018 ). Resilience is recognized as a strong negative predictor of psychological distress and COVID-19 anxiety (Nazari et al, 2021a ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, resilience promotion has been recognized as a crucial priority to reduce the adverse and traumatic influences of the pandemic on mental health (Bryce et al, 2020 ; Santarone et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Individual differences in neuroticism predict a broad range of adverse physical and psychological outcomes (Barlow et al, 2014 ), such as depression (Mineka et al, 2020 ), anxiety, and somatic symptoms (Strickhouser et al, 2017 ). COVID-19 psychological distress predicts higher levels of neuroticism (Nazari et al, 2021a ). Neuroticism has also been shown to be a strong predictor of internalizing symptomology (Nikčević et al, 2021 ) and depressive symptoms during the pandemic (Nazari et al, 2022 ).…”

Psychological Factors Related to Fear of COVID-19 in the General Salvadoran Population

“…This is an instrument which seeks to measure the fear towards COVID-19; the Spanish version [22] was used, it has 7 items, with 5 response options on a Likert-type scale (1 = totally disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = totally agree). The FCV-19S is divided in two categories: emotional reactions to fear (items 1, 2, 4 and 5) with a Cronbach Alpha of .85, and somatic expressions of fear (items 3, 6 and 7) with a Cronbach Alpha of .83. International researches prove that the instrument has appropriate validity and reliability indexes [23][24][25]. For this research, the reliability indexes were replicated, thus obtaining the following ones: for emotional reactions to fear the index was .85, and for somatic expressions of fear the index was 87; in addition, the total reliability index was obtained and this was .89.…”