Development and initial validation of the COVID Stress Scales
By Steven Taylor, Caeleigh A. Landry, Michelle M. Paluszek, Thomas A. Fergus, Dean McKay, G. Asmundson. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2020
976 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Research and clinical observations suggest that during times of pandemic many people exhibit stress- or anxiety-related psychopathology that include fear of becoming infected, fear of coming into contact with possibly contaminated objects or surfaces, fear of foreigners who might be carrying infection (i.e., disease-related xenophobia), fear of the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic, compulsive checking and reassurance-seeking regarding possible pandemic-related threats, and traumatic stress symptoms about the pandemic (e.g., nightmares, intrusive thoughts). We developed the 36-item COVID Stress Scales (CSS) to measure these features, as they pertain to COVID-19. The CSS were developed to better understand and assess COVID-19-related psychopathology. The scales were intentionally designed so they could be readily adapted for future pandemics. The CSS were developed and initially validated in population-representative samples from Canada (N = 3,479) and the United States (N = 3,375). A stable 5-factor solution was identified, corresponding to scales assessing COVID-related stress and anxiety symptoms: (1) Danger and contamination fears, (2) fears about economic consequences, (3) xenophobia, (4) compulsive checking, and (5) traumatic stress symptoms about COVID-19. The scales performed well on various indices of reliability and validity. The scales were intercorrelated, providing evidence of a COVID Stress Syndrome. The scales offer promise as tools for better understanding the psychopathology associated with COVID-19 and for identifying people in need of mental health services.
Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/577ff5b5b67f3367ba8ee8f469983f6270c0c8ee
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Citations in the corpus
- The COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scale: Development and psychometric properties (2020, neutral): “The clinical benefits of being able to identify the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome (avoidance, worry, checking and threat monitoring) may be of use during the current health crisis (Asmundson and Taylor, 2020).”
- Fear of COVID-19 and Positivity: Mediating Role of Intolerance of Uncertainty, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (2020, background): “On the other hand, the situation in question may be thought to lead to a cycle; decreased positivity may increase fear of COVID-19; increased fear may increase levels of intolerance of uncertainty, depression, anxiety, and stress (Harper et al. 2020; Satici et al. 2020a; Taylor et al. 2020).”
- Fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19): Predictors in an online study conducted in March 2020 (2020, positive): “This is in part already achieved by the CSS (Taylor et al., 2020), which assesses anxiety and stress symptoms relating to the coronavirus pandemic across five different factors (see the Introduction).”