The effects of fear of COVID-19 among Spanish healthcare professionals in three years after the pandemic onset via validation of the FCV-19S: a prospective study

Peñacoba-Puente, C., Luque-Reca, O., Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, García-Hedrera, F.J., Carmona-Monge, F.J. and Gil-Almagro, F., 2024. The effects of fear of COVID-19 among Spanish healthcare professionals in three years after the pandemic onset via validation of the FCV-19S: a prospective study. Current Psychology. ISSN 1046-1310

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Abstract

Despite being validated in different populations to assess fear of COVID-19, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) has scatter validations in healthcare professionals, often with several limitations, especially in Spanish-speaking professionals. Our research aims to extend previous studies by: (i) using a large sample of Spanish nurses and physicians; (ii) incorporating longitudinal data; and (iii) using a covariance-based SEM methodology to test different factor structures. 686 Spanish healthcare professionals (M = 42.7 years; 80.5% women; 76.7% nurses) participated in 2021 (Time 1), of whom, 216 were reassessed one year later (Time 2). The results (S-Bχ2 = 69.134, df = 13, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.974, and SRMR ≤ 0.031) supported a two-factor structure with a factor of somatic reactions and another of emotional expressions of fear of COVID-19. The FCV-19S evidenced strong factorial measurement invariance regarding gender, professional category, age and professional experience and also showed significantly higher levels of fear of COVID-19 in women, nurses, and professionals under 40 years old. The internal consistency was high for the somatic factor (ω = 0.86; α = 0.85), the emotional factor (ω = 0.82; α = 0.82) and the overall scale (α = 0.89). The scale showed good convergent, divergent, and incremental validity with respect to psychological symptomatology, perceived health, burnout, and worry about contagion. Finally, the FCV-19S showed criterion validity regarding generalized anxiety disorder, burnout, and the risk of leaving the profession. The FCV-19S evidenced excellent psychometric properties in Spanish healthcare professionals and was predictive of different health outcomes one year after administration. Study implications and limitations are also discussed.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Current Psychology
Creators: Peñacoba-Puente, C., Luque-Reca, O., Griffiths, M.D., García-Hedrera, F.J., Carmona-Monge, F.J. and Gil-Almagro, F.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18 May 2024
ISSN: 1046-1310
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1007/s12144-024-06113-2DOI
1895791Other
Rights: © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Laura Ward
Date Added: 20 May 2024 08:33
Last Modified: 20 May 2024 08:33
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/51447

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