Adaptation of the Fear of 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Scale to Turkish Culture: A Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

COVID-19 outbreak in the world has caused wide psychological effects and related concerns. Nonetheless, only a few studies have thus far evaluated the degree of fear of COVID-19, partially due to the lack of validated measures. This study was planned and conducted to study of the “Fear of COVID-19 Scale” adapted to Turkish culture which to measure level of fear of adult individuals Coronavirus Disease and developed by Ahorsu et al. (2020). In the study, over 18 years old adults has been achieved through a online questionnaire form who living in Turkey. 839 individuals were analyzed. In the first part of the questionnaire form, demographic features were questioned, and in the second part, Fear of COVID-19 Scale was applied. The scale is five-item likert type consisting of 7 questions. Whether there is a correlation between the items that is a prerequisite for the study factor analysis was examined by Bartlett Sphericity Test (x2 = 2770.755, p 0.5) and Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients (0.874). As a result of the analyzes, the adaptation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale to Turkish is robust and can be used in research assessing the psychological impact of COVID-19 among a Turkish adult population.