JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and measures to contain the global pandemic can have an impact on individual’s well-being and mental health status. Parents of young children are particularly at risk for high levels of parental stress due to the current public health crisis, which can impact parenting behaviors and children's well-being. Although different initial scales have been developed to measure COVID-19 related anxiety, they have not yet been tested sufficiently in parent samples. A brief measure of COVID-19-related anxiety is necessary for both quick assessment in practice and in larger epidemiological studies of parents.

Objective:

To compare the distributions, validities and reliabilities of four different COVID-19 anxiety scales: Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV19-S), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), Pandemic Anxiety Scale (PAS) and one subscale of the COVID-19 Stress Scale (CSS). Based on the psychometric properties, the purpose of this study is to provide recommendations for a brief unidimensional inventory to assess Covid-19 related anxiety among parents.

Methods:

A cross-sectional online survey on 515 German-speaking parents (90.3% mothers) with a child aged 0 to 6 years was conducted during a six-week period (June 29 to August 9, 2020). Half of the parents were recruited via Facebook parenting groups while the other half were recruited through childcare centers. Twenty-five items on Covid-19 related anxiety were psychometrically tested, including item analysis, correlational analysis with family variables and explorative factor analysis (EFA).

Results:

Based on the psychometric properties, five items were identified as single unidimensional factor. The brief COVID-19 scale had strong factor loadings on a single factor (.61 to .89), demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .86), high positive inter-correlation with three other COVID-19 anxiety scales, and a small positive association with parenting stress. Mothers and fathers did not differ in total scores, t(513)= .439, p = .66.

Conclusions:

Factor analysis suggests that existing COVID-19 related anxiety scales are measuring different latent constructs of anxiety. However, all scales showed only small to moderate correlations with trait health anxiety, suggesting COVID-19 related anxiety is distinct from general health anxiety. The 5-item scale, derived from the larger item pool, is an economical measure for assessing COVID-19 anxiety in parents. Directions for future research are outlined.