Evidence of Validity of the Adaptation of the Coronavirus Fear Scale in Colombia

In this paper, we present evidence of the validity of the adaptation of the Fears of Coronavirus Scale (EMC; Sandín et al., 2020) in Colombia. A cross-sectional analysis with a sample of 1853 Colombian citizens was employed. During the adaptation, the scale was reduced from four to three factors: (F...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gómez-Díaz, Javier Andrés, Barón-Birchenall, Leonardo
Format: Online
Language:spa
Published: Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPSI, Conicet-UNC) 2023
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Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/revaluar/article/view/41009
Description
Summary:In this paper, we present evidence of the validity of the adaptation of the Fears of Coronavirus Scale (EMC; Sandín et al., 2020) in Colombia. A cross-sectional analysis with a sample of 1853 Colombian citizens was employed. During the adaptation, the scale was reduced from four to three factors: (F1) fear of getting infected, getting sick, and dying from COVID; (F2) fear of losing job or reducing income and (F3) fear of social isolation or its effects. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conductedusing the maximum likelihood method with acceptable standards (SRMR = .06; RMSEA = .11; CI 90 % [.106, .115]). The extracted factors significantly vary with each other, are psychometrically similar to the original scale, and present a high internal consistency (McDonald’s ω between .83 and .89). Results show that the EMC can be used in the Colombian population; for instance, to support the diagnosis of emotional or behavioural sequelae derived from the COVID-19 pandemic.