Original Research - Special Collection: COVID-19
Psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale amongst black South African university students
African Journal of Psychological Assessment | Vol 3 | a57 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ajopa.v3i0.57
| © 2021 Malose Makhubela, Solomon Mashegoane
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 04 March 2021 | Published: 23 July 2021
Submitted: 04 March 2021 | Published: 23 July 2021
About the author(s)
Malose Makhubela, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South AfricaSolomon Mashegoane, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Limpopo, Polokwane, South Africa
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread widely leading to a global public health crisis of a pandemic proportion. Whilst infection rates tend to fluctuate in South Africa, COVID-19 remains a life-threatening disease with the capacity to wreak fear and concern. The present study evaluated the psychometric qualities of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) amongst black South African university students (N = 433; Female: 58%; Mage = 23.51 [SD = 4.18]). The FCV-19S demonstrated a unidimensional factor structure and acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.87), Omega (ω = 0.88) and the greatest lower bound (GLB = 0.90) reliabilities. In addition, discriminant validity was demonstrated when FCV-19S items loaded separately from ordinary fear. The FCV-19S can be used as a measure of COVID-19-related fear amongst black South African university students.
Keywords
COVID-19-related fear; factor structure; students; ordinary fear; validity
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