Validity and reliability of the Arabic Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Lebanese people during the pandemic

ABSTRACTWhile global attention is drawn to the somatic consequences of COVID-19, its psychological impact including fear and worry should be considered. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Lebanon, to cross-culturally adapt and validate the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) into the Arabic language among the Lebanese population. The study encompassed 712 Lebanese participants. Results showed that the A-FCV-19S has high internal consistency (α = .849). The exploratory factor analysis extracted a two-factor model explaining 68.428% of the total variance. As for the convergent validity, the A-FCV-19S total score significantly correlated with the HSCL-anxiety and HSCL-depression (r = .550 and .452, p-value < .0001 respectively). Thus, the findings indicate that the A-FCV-19S has acceptable psychometric properties and, therefore, it is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to evaluate and monitor the fear of COVID-19 among the general Lebanese population.KEYWORDS: FearCOVID-19psychological impactpsychometricsLebanon AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank the team of the HRIR Center for their help to conduct the study.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).