Validation of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: its Association with Acute Stress and Coping its Association with Acute Stress and Coping.

The COVID-19 is a "unique" stressor, which can produce physical and psychological trauma. Coping styles can buffer this psychological impact. Consequently, this paper aims to psychometrically adapt the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) to Spanish and examines the relationships between FCV-19S, stress response, and coping strategies. The sample comprised a convenience sample of 1146 participants (12-83 years), 880 from Spain (76.8%), and 266 from Dominican Republic (23.2%). Overall, the findings support a one-factor structure for FCV-19S, consisting of 7-items, and was invariant across age, sex, occupational status, and cross-national. Therefore, indicating evidences of construct validity. Evidences of reliability were also observed (Cronbach's α = .86, McDonald's ω = .86, Guttmann's λ6 = .86, greatest lower bound = .91, composite reliability = .85, and average variance extracted = .44). Moreover, as regards criterion-related validity, the mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between FCV-19S and acute stress was positive and high, with maladaptive coping styles mediating the relationship, and with a stronger mediation for men. The findings give evidences of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of FCV-19S among Spanish-speaker participants, which provides the chance of cross-cultural studies.

Correction to: Validation of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: its Association with Acute Stress and Coping.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s11469-021-00615-x.].

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRENGTHS BETWEEN ACADEMIC/WORK INTERFERENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

The psychological impact due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has been evidenced. Some of the variables associated with this have been the presence of previous financial problems, being students or being inactive, all of them issues related to the work and academic scope. Consequently, the main objective of the work was to analyze the mediating role that personal strengths for mental health have in the face of academic/work interference caused by lockdown due to COVID-19 in Spain based on work status (students, workers active and inactive), controlling in turn for other sociodemographic variables (sex and age). For the data collection of this descriptive cross-sectional study, an online survey was used, composed of instruments to assess the degree of interference in academic/work activities (ad hoc), maladaptive coping strategies (COPE-28), resilience (CD-RISC), covitality (SEHS), healthy habits (ad hoc), psychological well-being (WHO-5) and psychological distress (PHQ-4). The results showed: on the one hand, that the groups of students and inactivity showed worse mental health indicators and personal resources, while the opposite effect was found in the group of active workers;and, on the other hand, the PROCESS mediation models (model 4) evidenced a damping effect of personal resources between perceived academic/work interference and psychological adjustment indicators (well-being and psychological distress), regardless of the work category. In conclusion, the protective role of personal resources in psychological adjustment during lockdown due to COVID-19 is highlighted.

Validation of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: its Association with Acute Stress and Coping its Association with Acute Stress and Coping

The COVID-19 is a “unique” stressor, which can produce physical and psychological trauma. Coping styles can buffer this psychological impact. Consequently, this paper aims to psychometrically adapt the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) to Spanish and examines the relationships between FCV-19S, stress response, and coping strategies. The sample comprised a convenience sample of 1146 participants (12–83 years), 880 from Spain (76.8%), and 266 from Dominican Republic (23.2%). Overall, the findings support a one-factor structure for FCV-19S, consisting of 7-items, and was invariant across age, sex, occupational status, and cross-national. Therefore, indicating evidences of construct validity. Evidences of reliability were also observed (Cronbach’s α = .86, McDonald’s ω = .86, Guttmann’s λ6 = .86, greatest lower bound = .91, composite reliability = .85, and average variance extracted = .44). Moreover, as regards criterion-related validity, the mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between FCV-19S and acute stress was positive and high, with maladaptive coping styles mediating the relationship, and with a stronger mediation for men. The findings give evidences of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of FCV-19S among Spanish-speaker participants, which provides the chance of cross-cultural studies.

Evidence of diagnostic validity of the DetectaWeb-Distress Scale

The DetectaWeb-Distress Scale is a web-based scale for screening and detecting internalizing disorder symptoms (anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, obsessions and compulsions, and suicidality) in children and adolescents. Previous studies examined the validity and reliability of the scale, however, there are no data on its diagnostic validity. The objective of this study was to examine the evidence of diagnostic validity of the DetectaWeb-Distress scale in a sample of 244 children and adolescents from clinical (n = 51) and community (n = 193) settings, all of them with the diagnostic process completed. The results indicated that the DetectaWeb-Distress scale is a useful measure from a diagnostic point of view, as it discriminates between people with emotional disorders such as anxiety and depressive disorders and suicidality, and those without, presenting ROC values of approximately.80 and good sensitivity and specificity for detecting the main emotional disorders. The DetectaWeb-Distress Scale is a valid measure and diagnostically useful for detecting and identifying children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, depression and suicidality, with the advantage that it is a short measure, specifically developed for Internet use, especially relevant in the era of COVID-19. © Asociación Española de Psicología Clínica y Psicopatología