The Persian COVID‐19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C‐19ASS): Psychometric properties in a general community sample of Iranians

Abstract

There is a potential for a long‐lasting psychological and social impact from the COVID‐19 pandemic. Recently, the COVID‐19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C19‐ASS) has been developed, which measures individuals' coping mechanisms in relation to the fear or threat of COVID‐19. The C19‐ASS was developed and has been used so far only in Western samples. Further psychometric evaluation is needed in ethnically diverse samples. Therefore, the current study sought to test the psychometric properties in a large sample of Iranians ( n = 1429; female = 52.1%; Mean age = 35.83, ±12.89) who completed a cross‐sectional survey. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the Persian C19‐ASS has a two‐factor structure corresponding to the perseveration and avoidance subscales of the original scale. Confirmatory factor analyses also supported a two‐factor solution, which showed a firm model fit and high internal consistencies. Furthermore, it showed excellent divergent validity from generalized anxiety, indicating that it is concerned explicitly with COVID‐19, supported by correlational analyses and exploratory factor analysis. Test of incremental validity indicated the Persian C19‐ASS explained more variance in functional impairment and COVID‐19 anxiety than the gender, marital and educational status, generalized anxiety, neuroticism, openness, consciousness and having lost someone close due to COVID‐19. Also, based on a mediation test, it was found that C19‐ASS mediates the relationship between the Big Five personality traits (except openness and consciousness) and health anxiety, generalized anxiety, depression and COVID‐19 anxiety. Overall, the current findings provide further evidence for the construct of the COVID‐19 anxiety syndrome. The COVID‐19 anxiety syndrome is discussed in light of the S‐REF model that provides an explanatory framework for this pandemic‐related construct.

The Italian COVID‐19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale: Investigation of the COVID‐19 anxiety syndrome and its association with psychological symptoms in an Italian population

“…The final version of the Italian C‐19ASS showed a good fit for the data and satisfactory levels of reliability. These results are consistent with the original version of the C‐19ASS (Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ) and with a previous C‐19ASS validation study in a general community sample of Iranians (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Concerning convergent validity, correlation analyses revealed that both factors of the C‐19ASS are positively correlated with measures of the COVID‐19 fear (i.e., FVC‐19, Ahorsu et al, 2020 ) and COVID‐19 anxiety (i.e., CAS; Lee, 2020b ), as been found elsewhere (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ; Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ). However, it should be noted that a high correlation does not indicate similar clinical validity: rating scales may have a common content that ensures a positive association, but they may display differential validity (Carrozzino et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The C‐19ASS comprises two factors, that is, perseveration (i.e., checking, worrying and monitoring because of the fear or threat of COVID‐19), and avoidance (i.e., avoidance of public spaces, transport and contact with objects because of the fear or threat of COVID‐19) (Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ). The C‐19ASS was firstly validated in a USA community sample (Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ) with futher validations in a UK community sample (Albery et al, 2021 ) and in an Iranian community sample (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ), showing good internal consistency, construct, concurrent, divergent and incremental validity (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ; Albery et al, 2021 ; Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ). The perseveration component of the COVID‐19 anxiety syndrome has been found to predict COVID‐19 anxiety, (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ; Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ), generalized anxiety, depression (Albery et al, 2021 ) and functional impairments (Akbari, Seydavi, et al, 2021 ; Nikčević & Spada, 2020 ).…”

Metacognitions About Health in Relation to Coronavirus Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Attentional Syndrome and Distress Tolerance

“…As mental strain is expected to persist throughout the pandemic, more studies on pandemic-related psychological issues are needed (Lee, Mathis, et al, 2020 ). A recent study conducted during the fourth wave of the pandemic by using a national survey (Akbari et al, 2021c , 2021d ) revealed that Iranians had experienced psychological distress due to the COVID-19. The authors have found that distress intolerance has predicted psychological distress, partially mediated by psychological flexibility.…”

“…Some researchers have found that fear and anxiety about COVID-19 are associated with higher rates of anxiety and depression symptoms (Ahmed et al, 2020 ; Ahorsu et al, 2020 ; Jungmann & Witthoft, 2020 ; Lee, Mathis, et al, 2020 ; Lee, 2020b ; Taylor & Asmundson, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Akbari et al, 2021d ). The heightened anxiety and depressive symptoms are associated with health anxiety (HA; Nikčević et al, 2021 ).…”