Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in a US College Sample

By C. Perz, Brent Lang, R. Harrington. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 2020

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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted college students’ coursework, stress levels, and perceived health. Various estimates indicate that high proportions of college students have experienced increased amounts of stress (Dziech, Inside Higher Education , 2020 ; Hartocollis, New York Times , 2020 ), yet other sources indicate that many college students respond to these changes with resilience (Kelley, Cornell Chronicle , 2020 ). A method for assessing student anxiety regarding the pandemic is thus needed. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) (Ahorsu et al., International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction , 2020 ) is a seven-item scale which has been validated and shown to possess good psychometric qualities in studies of participants from multiple countries. The current study used a cross-sectional convenience sample of US college student participants ( n  = 237) and found that the FCV-19S has high reliability and validity as demonstrated by its internal consistency and strong one-factor solution. Scores on the FCV-19S were positively correlated with anxiety for students who were married or of Asian descent. Additionally, the FCV-19S was only moderately correlated with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (GAD-7), suggesting that the FCV-19S may bring added utility to research and clinical practice with populations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

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