Assessing fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19 viral infection is essential for investigating mental health during this epidemic. We have developed and validated a Japanese-language version of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) based on a large, nationwide residential sample (n = 6,750) recruited through news and social media responding to an online version of the questionnaire. Data was collected from August 4–25, 2020. Results correlated with K6, GAD-7 and IES-R psychological scales, and T-tests and analysis of variance identified associated factors. All indices indicated the two-factor model emotional fear reactions and symptomatic expressions of fear a better fit for our data than a single-factor model in Confirmatory Factor Analysis (χ2 = 164.16, p<0.001, CFI 0.991, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.043). Socio-demographic factors identified as disaster vulnerabilities such as female sex, sexual minority, elderly, unemployment, and present psychiatric history associated with higher scores. However, respondent or family member experience of infection risk, or work/school interference from confinement, had greatest impact. Results suggest necessity of mental health support during this pandemic similar to other disasters.

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Aim: Suicide victims have various distresses or motives. There are few studies on how these motives toward suicide relate with each other. We used network analyses to extract the structures of correlations among the motives for suicide. Methods:We obtained datasets of suicide victims from [2007][2008][2009] in Japan in cooperation with Ibaraki Prefectural Police Headquarters. The data were analyzed by network centrality measures and a structural analysis by block modeling.Results: Among the motives, depression and physical illness showed relatively high scores of 'degree centrality', whereas depression and unemployment showed relatively high scores of 'betweenness centrality'. Structural analysis by block modeling resulted in eight blocks. The most important block comprised eight motives, including conflict between parent and child, marital conflict, economic hardship, and overloaded with debt. Conclusion:Depression and physical illness were important and priority areas for completed suicides, although these two motives had different influences on suicide behaviors. Furthermore, structural analysis revealed the important role of a block, including some familial and financial motives, which induced hopelessness. Our results suggest that it might be useful to consider the common ways in which motivations for suicide are tied together when suicide intervention is launched from a social model point of view.

Our study identified a strong relationship between the severity of suicidal ideation and perceived social support.

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