The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Psychometric Properties of the Ethiopian Amharic Version

Abstract

Fear is an adaptive response that alerts individuals to the presence of a danger or threat. However, in the context of the current novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the fear experienced could be intense because the number of victims of the virus is continuously increasing globally and is inducing severe mental health concerns. The seven-item Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) assesses the severity of fear related to COVID-19 and has already been validated in many languages. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Amharic (Ethiopian) version of the FCV19S. An online survey including the Amharic versions of the FCV-19S and the six-item UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-6) was administered to 307 Amharic-speaking participants using convenience sampling. The participants’ age ranged between 18 and 70 years. In the evaluation process, confirmatory factor analysis, Item Response Theory, concurrent validity, and reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega, Guttman’s lambda, and composite reliability) of the Amharic version of the FCV-19S were performed. The unidimensional structure of the FCV-19S was confirmed and the Amharic version of the FCV-19S had strong psychometric properties. All reliability coefficients of the Amharic FCV-19S were satisfactory, with sound concurrent validity shown by significant and positive correlations with loneliness. The results indicate that the FCV-19S can be used in research to assess the fear of COVID-19 among Amharic-speaking populations.