Gender Implications of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in the Spanish Population: A Validation Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) for the general Spanish population. Method: A cross-sectional investigation was carried out in several stages. Participants (N = 699) between the ages of 18 and 73 (M = 27.79; SD = 12.68) completed both the FCV-19S and the Hospital, Anxiety, and Depression Scale (HADS). We performed descriptive, exploratory factorial (n = 349), confirmatory (n = 350), and scale reliability analyses. Results: The results confirmed the factor structure of the original scale as well as the scale's goodness-of-fit indices and good internal consistency (α = .91, ω = .98). The correlations between the Spanish FCV-19S and the HADS support the scale's validity, especially for the subdimension of anxiety. Conclusions: The Spanish version of the FCV-19S appears to be a valid measure for the assessment of fear in an adult population. The present study moves research forward by providing a confirmatory analysis of the gender variable's influence on the factor analysis. The FCV-19S-Spanish provides a valid brief measure to evaluate fear of being infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The results also revealed that fear was higher among women than among men, which is important as it suggests that more attention needs to be paid to assessing and treating women's fear. Assessing and treating fear represents an important step for the prevention of future mental health problems. Clinical Impact Statement COVID-19 is a threat to global public health, and its relatively high rate of morbidity highlights the importance of fear of contagion research. Therefore, it is more pressing than ever that we have access to appropriate measurement tools to evaluate fear of contagion. The results of the present study provide preliminary support for the validity of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale for a Spanish sample. Our results also highlight an unfortunate gender-related disparity. This research demonstrates that the scale is a reliable, valid measure that is highly recommended for the measurement of fear of contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic.