Construction and Preliminary Validation of the COVID-19 Pandemic Anxiety Scale

Abstract

V Vineeth Kumar, Geetika Tankha, Shelly, Sylvi Seth, Apeksha, Tanya S. Timple.

Background: The current pandemic (COVID-19) has created an unprecedented challenge for the scientific community and ordinary people alike. The pandemic apart from being life-threatening has also created a lot of anxiety among the people. This anxiety can have long term consequences for the individual. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop a short scale to assess COVID-19 pandemic anxiety.
Materials and Method: The data were collected in two phases through online surveys. A total of 318 adult Indian participants formed the sample. In the first phase, data collected from 107 participants on the initial 34 items scale were analyzed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA). For extraction, principal component analysis with oblique rotation was employed. The resulting model was tested in the second phase using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the maximum likelihood method. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic anxiety scale (COVID-19 PAS) was also correlated with an existing scale based on DSM-5, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale.
Results: EFA involving Principal component analysis with oblique rotation identified two factors of COVID-19 pandemic anxiety. The obtained two factors; fear and somatic concerns explained 57.36 percent of the variance. The resulting model was tested using CFA with the maximum likelihood method. The resulting final model indicated an excellent model fit The Cronbach alpha of the short 10 items COVID-19 pandemic scale was 0.80. The correlation between COVID-19 PAS and CAS by Lee was significant (r=0.56, p < 0.01), indicating significant convergent validity of the scale.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 PAS illustrated significant internal consistency and validity. The scale can be a useful instrument to study COVID-19 pandemic anxiety.