Abstract
During the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 pandemic, economies around the world underwent unprecedented changes, which negatively limited young people’s perceptions of their future. The study aims to describe the development and validation of the 10-item COVID-19 Future Impact Perception Scale (C-19FIPS), a measurement tool to assess future impact perception related to COVID-19, among university students. Inductive and deductive approaches were used at the phase of the scale development process. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) applying two different SEM based analytical methods, covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) and variance based SEM (PLS-SEM) were used to explore and predict the data. The EFA output generated two dimensions with 10 items. The dimensions are Personal Perception (C-19 PF) and Country Perception (C-19 CF) that reflects the notion of Future Impact Perception related to COVID-19. The result of the CFA confirmed the EFA result. Based on the reliability and validity check results, it is apparent that the scale demonstrates good psychometric properties. Evidence was also provided for convergent and discriminant validity. The study provided a short, valid and reliable measure to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students’ future perceptions. Knowing how external situations influence the world of young people is useful for the development of targeted interventions that favor their well-being and that can support them in situations perceived as uncertain and risky. Limitations and future lines are discussed.
Highlights
Containment measures taken by governments to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, social distancing, smart-working, lockdowns and travel restrictions [8] have put enormous pressure on much of the world economy, leading to the reduction of the workforce in all sectors, and the loss of many jobs [9] that severely affected the financial markets by reducing the value of the stock index by up to 10% in 1 day [10]
The assessment of factorability showed that the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure was 0.883 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (x2 = 7210,581; df = 45, p< 0.001) indicating that the data were adequate for the factor analysis
Items CovidC6 “Covid-19 will negatively affect entrepreneurs in my country”, CovidC7 “Covid-19 will prevent the creation of new businesses in my country”, CovidC8 “COVID-19 will diminish labor opportunities in my country” and CovidP6 “COVID-19 has discouraged me to become an entrepreneur” have been eliminated
Summary
Containment measures taken by governments to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, social distancing, smart-working, lockdowns and travel restrictions [8] have put enormous pressure on much of the world economy, leading to the reduction of the workforce in all sectors, and the loss of many jobs [9] that severely affected the financial markets by reducing the value of the stock index by up to 10% in 1 day [10]. This situation appears even more worrying in a future perspective, especially for the most fragile social groups and for those who enter the world of work for the first time, for example young people
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