COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale

Abstract

The COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale (Ahn & Noh, 2023) is a 25-item instrument designed to assess COVID-related stress at both cultural and individual levels, specifically within a collectivistic society context. This measure was developed in response to the limitations of previous COVID-19 assessments, which often overlooked cultural aspects as suggested by the pathogen prevalence hypothesis. This hypothesis posits that the psychological responses of collectivists encompass not only clinical responses but also cultural group responses, driven by strong collectivism. Through an extensive review of existing COVID measurement studies, the authors identified four key dimensions of COVID-blues: (a) individual loneliness, (b) fear, (c) social anger, and (d) socioeconomic consequences. An initial pool of items was generated by either developing new items or adapting existing ones from measures related to these dimensions (Ahorsu et al., 2020; Luchetti et al., 2020). These adapted items were translated into Korean by a bilingual member of the research team and subsequently reviewed by experts. The scale was administered online to adults in South Korea. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 4-factor structure, retaining 25 items. The study also reported on measurement invariance, reliability, and validity.

Keywords

Collectivistic Society, COVID-19, COVID-Blues Social Syndrome, COVID-Related Stress, Fear, Individual Loneliness, Social Anger, Socioeconomic Consequences

Authors

Ahn, Changhyun; Noh, Ghee Young

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale is to evaluate individual and cultural dimensions of COVID-related stress within the context of a collectivistic society.

Validity

Convergent Validity: The average variance extracted (AVE) values for each latent factor were consistently above .62, indicating strong convergent validity.

Discriminant Validity: The data demonstrated that the AVE values were higher than the squared correlation values for each latent factor, thereby establishing discriminant validity for the measurement scales.

Reliability

Internal Consistency: The overall reliability of the 25-item scale was high, with a Cronbach’s alpha value of .93. Furthermore, the composite reliability (CR) values for each latent factor exceeded .90, indicating robust internal consistency among items within each factor.

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): An initial set of four items was removed due to low loading values distributed across multiple dimensions. EFA was then performed on the remaining 25 items using the principal component analysis (PCA) method with varimax rotation. The PCA results revealed that all items collectively explained 77.12% of the variance, with an eigenvalue of 1.78, supporting a four-factor solution as the most appropriate.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): The CFA results demonstrated excellent model fit, with a χ2/df ratio of 10.81 (p < .001), a Comparative Fit Index (CFI) of .93, a Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) of .92, a Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) of .08, and a Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) of .06.

Measurement Invariance: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) performed on the 25-item model established configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance, suggesting that the scale functions similarly across different groups.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: Items are rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The anchors vary depending on the item, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), or 1 (I do not feel this at all) to 7 (I feel this very strongly). The administration method is electronic.

Language Available: Korean

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older), including Young Adulthood (18-29 years), Thirties (30-39 years), Middle Age (40-64 years), Aged (65 years and older), and Very Old (85 years and older).

Population Details: The study was conducted in South Korea, with adult respondents.

Test Methodology: The methodology involved various psychometric evaluations, including Test Validity (Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency), and Factor Analysis (Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Measurement Invariance).

Keywords

Collectivistic Society, COVID-19, COVID-Blues Social Syndrome, COVID-Related Stress, Fear, Individual Loneliness, Social Anger, Socioeconomic Consequences

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Noh, Ghee Young: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4446-4726

Affiliation:

• Ahn, Changhyun: Hallym University, Health and New Media Research Institute

• Noh, Ghee Young: Hallym University, Media School

Email addresses:

• Noh, Ghee Young: [email protected]

Correspondence Address:

• Noh, Ghee Young: Hallym University, Media School, 1, Hallymdaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Korea, Republic of, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Publisher

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

References

Ahn, C., & Noh, G. Y. (2023). Development and validation of Korean ‘COVID-blues’ Social Syndrome Scale. Journal of Health Communication, 28(12), 846–855. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2023.2279668

Ahorsu, D. K., Lin, C. Y., Imani, V., Saffari, M., Griffiths, M. D., & Pakpour, A. H. (2020). The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and initial validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 19(5), 1537–1545. No data is Available

Luchetti, M., Lee, J. H., Aschwanden, D., Sesker, A., Strickhouser, J. E., Terracciano, A., & Sutin, A. R. (2020). The trajectory of loneliness in response to COVID-19. American Psychologist, 75(7), 897–900. No data is Available

Items of the COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale

The COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale comprises 25 items distributed across four factors:

• Individual loneliness (IL)

• Fear (FE)

• Social anger (SA)

• Socioeconomic consequences (SC)

Instructions: These are the emotions that most people can feel on a daily basis during the COVID-19 situation. To what extent do you feel? …

(IL1) … lack companionship.
(IL2) … left out.
(IL3) … isolated from others.
(IL4) … alone.
(IL5) … not “in tune” with other people.
(IL6) … lack of people I can turn to.
(IL7) … lack of people to talk to.
(IL8) … lack of people that understand me.
(IL9) … not being part of a group.
(IL10) … lack of people who have a lot in common with me.
(FE1) I am afraid of losing my life because of COVID-19.
(FE2) When hearing news and stories about COVID-19 on SNS or social media, I become nervous or anxious.
(FE3) I cannot sleep because I’m worrying about COVID-19.
(FE4) My heart races when I think about getting COVID-19.
(SA1) I feel angry when I see people who don’t wear masks.
(SA2) People who don’t wear mask deserve to be severely punished.
(SA3) I think people who don’t follow prevention guideline of health authorities are threatening social order.
(SA4) I feel the urge to correct those who wear their masks below their nose or chin.
(SA5) I feel angry when I see people who don’t care about social distancing levels.
(SA7) I feel urge to swear at person who didn’t wear mask in crowded places.
(SA9) I think people who go out to crowded places when social distancing levels are above 2nd degree are terrorists who threaten our society.
(SC1) I feel COVID-19 threaten my economic activity.
(SC2) I feel insecure about future of my current business or current job because of COVID-19.
(SC3) I fear that my revenue or business getting cut off before COVID-19 situation ends.
(SC4) I worry that my career is cut off because of COVID-19 when I get a new job or when I get reemployed.

Note. IL=Individual Loneliness; FE=Fear; SA=Social Anger; SC=Socioeconomic Consequences. Response options include: 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much) and 1 (I do not feel this at all) to 7 (I feel this very strongly).