Development and Initial Evaluation of the LGBTQ+ COVID-19 Concerns Scale

Abstract

COVID-19 has had negative health and economic impacts on the U.S. population and on marginalized groups in particular. While policy and review papers have noted the unique concerns of LGBTQ+ individuals during the pandemic, these statements have drawn largely from existing data on health and economic disparities, rather than data collected during COVID-19. Research on the unique concerns and experiences of LGBTQ+ people during this time is urgent and yet no culturally relevant, validated measures have been developed to empirically examine these concerns. The current study reports on the development and exploratory factor analysis of a new measure, the LGBTQ+ COVID-19 Concerns Scale (LGBTQ+-CCS). Data was collected online in April 2020 from a sample of 429 LGBTQ+ adults in the United States. The final 15-item scale demonstrated initial validity and reliability and contains four subscales: mental health concerns, financial concerns, health and discrimination concerns, and social isolation concerns. The LGBTQ+-CCS can be used in research and clinical work to measure how concerns related to the pandemic are related to mental and physical health and to examine differences between LGBTQ+ subpopulations and LGBTQ+ people over time. Future research should focus on further validating the measure through confirmatory factor analysis.