ABSTRACT
Background and Purpose: The negative attitude towards vaccines for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has motivated the adaptation of instruments for this specific purpose. However, details of the reliability and validity of these scales are unknown. The study aimed to evaluate some indicators of the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the Attitude towards COVID-19 Vaccines Scale. Methods: A validation study was carried out with 1,136 students of emerging age (18 and 29 years) from a Colombian university; 65.5% were female. Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega were calculated for reliability, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes for validity. Additionally, the gender differential item functioning (DIF) was estimated with Kendall's tau b. Results: The Spanish version of Attitude towards COVID-19 Vaccines Scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of .94 and McDonald's omega of .95), a one-dimensional structure with acceptable goodness-of-fit indicators (CFI = .94, TLI = .91, and SRMR = .04), and non-gender DIF (Kendall's tau b between .02 and .06). Conclusions: The Spanish version of the Attitude towards COVID-19 Vaccines Scale presents some appropriate reliability and validity indicators among university emerging adults. These findings should be explored in samples with other characteristics.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , Adult , Humans , Female , Adolescent , Young Adult , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and Questionnaires , COVID-19/prevention & control , Students , PsychometricsABSTRACT
Analyze whether the content of three moral messages (deontological, ethical utilitarianism, ethical virtue) and a control message differentially affect the probability of engaging in four behaviors: Washing their hands, participating in public gatherings, staying at home/avoiding social contact, and forwarding the message to inform more people. In our study, the sender of the message is a university professor. These variables are measured in terms of their behavioral intentions and others' behavioral intentions (beliefs about others' behavior). Randomized Controlled Trial. Our study includes the analysis of the possible moderating effect of the country of residence (Spain n = 1,122, Chile n = 1,107, and Colombia n = 1,433). The message with content referring to ethical virtue and staying at home obtains statistically significant lower scores on the probability of carrying out public health behaviors and sharing the message received. Regarding beliefs about the behavior of others, the message of ethical virtue has the same negative effect, but only on the likelihood of other people washing their hands, staying at home, and sharing the public health message. Institutional messages aimed at promoting public health behaviors are necessary in a pandemic situation. Our recommendation is to use deontological and utilitarian, or non-moral, content.
