AUTHOR=Cuadrado Esther , Arenas Alicia , Moyano Manuel , La Gamma Martina 

TITLE=Development and Validation of the COVID-19 Worries and Fears Scale

JOURNAL=International Journal of Public Health

VOLUME=67

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.ssph-journal.org/journals/international-journal-of-public-health/articles/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604600

DOI=10.3389/ijph.2022.1604600

ISSN=1661-8564

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objectives:</bold> How individuals perceive the risk of COVID-19 influences their mental health and protective behaviors. Therefore, the development of an instrument to capture COVID-19-related worries and fears is relevant. This study aims to develop and validate the CoV-WoFe to measure COVID-19-related worries and fears.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> An online questionnaire was completed by 593 participants during Christmas 2020 and by 328 participants during Summer 2021, from which 88 participants formed a longitudinal sample.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Analyses confirmed a robust adjustment for consistency over time and a gender-invariant bifactorial structure. Factor 1 represented worry about the health consequences of COVID-19 and Factor 2 represented the perceived physiological symptoms associated with fear of COVID-19. Construct validity was evidenced by: the expected relations between the CoV-WoFe and other theoretically related constructs; the serial mediating role of both dimensions in the relationship that security values establish with protective behaviors against COVID-19 and with anxiety; and the expected gender differences in the Cov-WoFe.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> The CoV-WoFe represents a short, valid, reliable, gender-invariant tool that is easy to apply in both the health professional and research context to assessCOVID-19-related worries and fears, which are variables of relevance for spread of the virus and for mental health.</p>