An Evaluation of Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Professional Filipino Teachers.

Michael Cahapay; Jeorge Louie D.  Anoba; Romina M.  Amador; Kenneth B. Garcia; Erwin E.  Rotas; Thalia R.  Carreon

doi:10.46661/ijeri.6181

Authors

Michael Cahapay Mindanao State University – General Santos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0588-0022
Jeorge Louie D. Anoba Department of Education, City Schools Division of Koronadal
Romina M. Amador Severo T. Inong Elementary School, Kiamba, Sarangani Province https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3452-7233
Kenneth B. Garcia Romana C. Acharon Central Elementary School, General Santos City https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6835-7642
Erwin E. Rotas Upper Tambler Central Elementary School, General Santos City https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-2684
Thalia R. Carreon Balite Elementary School, General Santos City

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46661/ijeri.6181

Keywords:

Fear, teachers, scale development, COVID-19, Philippines

Abstract

The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has enormously induced psychological impacts on humans like fear. Considering this particular concern, there is a need to test instruments used to measure such psychological impact. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19) Scale originally developed by Ahorsu et al. (2020). A sample of 1,060 K to 12 professional teachers from Mindanao, Philippines were selected to participate in the online survey. The preliminary analysis showed a high level of perceived fear of COVID-19 in the respondents of this study. The results of the series of tests are encouraging as the FCV-19 Scale generated a robust construct validity for both one- and two- factor structure models and a very high internal consistency complemented by strong inter-item correlations and item-total correlations. The results further supported the concurrent validity of the FCV-19 Scale with selected COVID-19-related characteristics significantly predicting fear of COVID-19. Overall, this paper provides an assessment of the fear of COVID-19 in a sample of professional teachers and the properties of the FCV-19 Scale in a particular context. The FCV-19 Scale, a seven-item scale, is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess the fear of COVID-19 of Filipino teachers.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ahorsu, D.K., Lin, C.Y., Imani, V., Saffari, M., Griffiths M. D., & Pakpour, A. H., (2020). The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and Initial Validation. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8

Alyami, M., Henning, M., Krägeloh, C. U., & Alyami, H. (2020). Psychometric Evaluation of the Arabic Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00316-x

American Psychological Association. (2020). Psychological impact of COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/psychological-impact

Arora, A., Jha, A. K., Alat, P., & Das, S. S. (2020). Understanding Coronaphobia. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, 102384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102384

Aylie N. S., Mekonen M. A., & Mekuria R. M. (2020). The Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic Among University Students in Bench-Sheko Zone, South-west Ethiopia: A Community-based Cross-sectional Study. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 13, 813-821. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S275593

Barrios, I., Ríos-González, C., O’Higgins, M., González, I., García, O., Díaz, N. R., Torales, J. (2020). Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2021.5

Brooks, S. K., Webster., R. K., Smith L., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, L., & Rubin, G. J., (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8

Cahapay, M. B. (2021). To get or not to get: Examining the Intentions of Philippine Teachers to Vaccinate against COVID-19. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2021.1896409

Carreon, T., Rotas, E., Cahapay, M., Garcia, K., Amador, R., & Anoba, J. L. (2021). Fear of COVID-19 and Remote Teaching Burnout of Philippine K to 12 Teachers. International Journal of Educational Research and Innovation, 15(1), 552-567. https://doi.org/10.46661/ijeri.5853

Cortez, P. A., Joseph, S. J., Das, N., Bhandari, S. S., & Shoib, S. (2020). Tools to measure the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: What do we have in the platter?. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 53, 102371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102371

Cortina, J. M. (1993). What is Coefficient Alpha? An Examination of Theory and Applications. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.1.98

Crossman, A. (2020). What is a Snowball Sample in Sociology? ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/snowball-sampling-3026730

Dela Cruz, L. I. (2020). The Impact of COVID-19 on Teachers’ Mental Health: Managing Psychological and Emotional Well-Being. Learntech Asia. Retrieved from https://learntechasia.com/webinar-covid-impact-on-teachers-students-mental-health/

Doshi, D., Karunakar, P., Sukhabogi, J. R., Prasanna, J. S., & Mahajan, S. V. (2020). Assessing Coronavirus Fear in Indian Population Using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-9. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00332-x

Gao, Y. L., & Xie, Y. N. (2005). SARS Psychological Syndrome Prevention and Treatment Manual. Yangcheng: Jinan University Press.

Glen, S. (2015). Criterion Validity: Definition, Types of Validity. HowTo.com. Retrieved from https://www.statisticshowto.com/criterion-validity/

Guarner, J. (2020). Three Emerging Coronaviruses in Two Decades. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 153(4), 420-421. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/aqaa029

Haktanir, A., Seki, T., & Dilmaç, B. (2020). Adaptation and evaluation of Turkish version of the fear of COVID-19 Scale. Death Studies, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2020.1773026

Huarcaya-Victoria, J., Villarreal-Zegarra, D., Podestà, A., & Luna-Cuadros, M. A. (2020). Psychometric Properties of a Spanish Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in General Population of Lima, Peru. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00354-5a

Kuan, G., Kueh, Y. C., Abdullah, N., & Tai, E. L. M. (2019). Psychometric Properties of the Health-promoting Lifestyle Profile II: Cross-cultural Validation of the Malay Language Version. BMC Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7109-2

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.

Labrague, L.J. & De los Santos. J. (2020). COVID-19 Anxiety Among Frontline Nurses: Predictive Role of Organisational Support, Personal Resilience and Social Support. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(7), 1653-1661. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.16.20141069

Lempel, H., Epstein, J. M., & Hammond, R. A. (2009). Economic cost and health care workforce effects of school closures in the U.S. PLoS Currents. https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.RRN1051

Liang, S. W., Chen, R. N., Liu, L. L., Li., X. G., Chen, J. B., Tang, S. Y., & Zhao, J. B., (2020). The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Epidemic on Guangdong College Students: The Difference Between Seeking and Not Seeking Psychological Help. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02231

Martínez-Lorca, M., Martínez-Lorca, A., Criado-Álvarez, J. J., Armesilla, M., & Latorre, J. M. (2020). The fear of COVID-19 scale: Validation in Spanish university students. Psychiatry Research, 293, 113350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113350

McLeod, V. (2020). COVID-19: A History of Coronavirus. Lab Manager. Retrieved from https://www.labmanager.com/lab-health-and-safety/covid-19-a-history-of-coronavirus-22021

Mertens, G., Gerritsen, L., Duijndam, S., Salemink, E., & Engelhard, R., (2020). Fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19): Predictors in an online study conducted in March 2020. Journal of Anxiety Disorder, 74, 102258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102258

Perz, C. A., Lang, B. A., & Harrington, R. (2020). Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in a US College Sample. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1-11. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00356-3

Sakib, N., Bhuiyan, A. K. M. I., Hossain, S., Al Mamun, F., Hosen, I., Abdullah, A. H., … Mamun, M. A. (2020). Psychometric Validation of the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00289-x

Segerstrom, S. C., Solomon, G. F., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Relationship of worry to immune sequelae of the Northridge earthquake. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(5), 433–450. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018732309353

Serafini, G., Parmigiani, B., Amerio, A., Aguglia, A., Sher, L., & Amore, M. (2020). The psychological impact of COVID-19 on the mental health in the general population. An International Journal of Medicine, 113. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcaa201

Shultz, J. M., Cooper, J. L., Baingana, F., Oquendo, M. A., Espinel, Z., Althouse, B. M., … Rechkemmer, A. (2016). The Role of Fear-Related Behaviors in the 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak. Current Psychiatry Reports, 18(11). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0741-y

Soraci, P., Ferrari, A., Abbiah, F., Del Fante, E., De Pace, R., Urso, A., & Griffiths, M. (2020) Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00277-1

Taber, K. S. (2018). The Use of Cronbach’s Alpha When Developing and Reporting Research Instruments in Science Education. Research in Science Education, 48(6), 1273-1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2

Tan, B., & Chew, N. (2020). Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Workers in Singapore. Annals of Internal Medicine, 173(4), 317-320. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-1083

Tee, C. A., Salido, E. O., Reyes, P. W. C., Ho, R. C., & Tee, M. L. (2020). Psychological State and Associated Factors During the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic Among Filipinos with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Open Access Rheumatology: Research and Reviews, 12, 215-222. https://doi.org/10.2147/OARRR.S269889

Teitler-Regev, S., Shahrabani, S., & Benzion, U. (2011). Factors affecting intention among students to be vaccinated against A/H1N1 in uenza: A health belief model approach. Advances in Preventive Medicine, 2011, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.4061/2011/353207

Tzur Bitan, D., Grossman-Giron, A., Bloch, Y., Mayer, Y., Shiffman, N., & Mendlovic, S. (2020). Fear of COVID-19 scale: Psychometric characteristics, reliability and validity in the Israeli population. Psychiatry Research, 289, 113100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113100

World Health Organization. (2021). WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. Retrieved from https://covid19.who.int

World Health Organization. (2021). Philippines Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report #68. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/philippines/internal-publications-detail/covid-19-in-the-philippines-situation-report-68