The COVID-19 Multifaceted Threat Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties
Author(s): Joel R Anderson, Adrian Lueders, Sindhuja Sankaran, Eva Green, Emanuele Politi.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented threat for individuals worldwide. This paper reports the initial psychometric properties for the recently developed COVID-19 Multifaceted Threat Scale. Across three studies the construction and initial psychometric evidence is presented. In Study 1 (n = 194, 11 national groups), we adopted an inductive qualitative methodology to elicit participants’ concerns, worries, or fears about the corona pandemic. A thematic analysis revealed 10 consistent themes around threat, from which we constructed a pool of 100 potential items. In Study 2, a sample from the United States (n = 322) provided data for an exploratory factor analysis which reduced the 100 items to 30 items across the 10 hypothesised dimensions sub-factors. In Study 3, these findings were then validated in samples from the United States (n = 471) and India (n = 423) using a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. We also present preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity for the scale across two national groups (United States and India). The evidence presented suggests that the COVID-19 Multifaceted Threat Scale is a psychometrically sound measure and can be used when exploring current and long-lasting effects of the pandemic on individuals and societies.