Table2_Development and Validation of the COVID-19 Worries and Fears Scale.DOCX

Objectives: 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.
Methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusion: 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.

研究目的：个体对新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）风险的感知如何影响其心理健康与防护行为，因此开发一款用于捕捉新冠相关担忧与恐惧的测评工具具有重要现实意义。本研究旨在开发并验证新冠担忧恐惧量表（CoV-WoFe），以测量个体对COVID-19的担忧与恐惧情绪。
研究方法：本研究于2020年圣诞节期间招募593名参与者、2021年夏季招募328名参与者完成线上问卷，其中88名参与者构成纵向研究样本。
研究结果：分析结果证实，该量表具备良好的跨时间一致性，且具有性别不变的双因子结构。其中，因子1代表个体对COVID-19健康后果的担忧，因子2代表个体感知到的、与COVID-19恐惧相关的生理症状。本研究通过以下证据验证了量表的结构效度：一是CoV-WoFe与其他理论上相关构念之间存在预期的关联；二是两个维度在安全价值观与COVID-19防护行为、焦虑之间的关系中起到序列中介作用；三是CoV-WoFe存在预期的性别差异。
研究结论：CoV-WoFe是一款简短、有效、可靠且不受性别影响的测评工具，易于在医疗专业场景与科研场景中应用，用于评估个体的COVID-19相关担忧与恐惧情绪——此类情绪是影响病毒传播与心理健康的关键变量。