(Don't fear) the factors: An item‐level meta‐analysis of the fear of COVID‐19 Scale's factor structure and measurement invariance

Abstract

The global COVID‐19 pandemic saw marked research and clinical interest in evaluating pandemic‐related distress, namely fear and anxiety regarding infection and death. The most widely used and earliest developed measure of COVID‐19 distress is Ahorsu et al. (2022) seven‐item Fear of COVID‐19 Scale (FCV‐19S). To investigate the factor structure and measurement equivalence of the FCV‐19S, we conducted an item‐level meta‐analysis synthesizing 1155 effect sizes across k = 55 independent samples comprising N = 71,161 individuals. We found that a two‐factor measurement model comprising a four‐item Emotional factor and a three‐item Psychosomatic factor exhibits better fit than the originally proposed single‐factor measurement model. Moreover, the bidimensional FCV‐19S exhibits partial scalar/strong invariance across the general population, healthcare workers, schoolteachers, and university students as well as partial metric/weak invariance across samples from Bangladesh, China, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, and Portugal. Despite the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, more primary research across a wider range of sample types and countries is undoubtedly needed for further evaluation of the FCV‐19S's psychometric properties and generalizability.