Is there evidence for factorial invariance of the COVID Stress Scales? an analysis of North American and cross-cultural populations

Is there evidence for factorial invariance of the COVID Stress Scales? an analysis of North American and cross-cultural populations

Blog Article

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the mental health of more citizens globally than any previous modern viral outbreak.In response to the psychological challenges associated with COVID-19, the COVID Stress Scales (CSS) were developed to assess the bekindtopets.com presence and severity of COVID-related distress.The initial North American validation study of the CSS identified that the scale comprised five factors: danger and contamination fears, fear of socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, checking and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms.

The CSS have since been validated across a multitude of international populations.However, findings support a five- and six-factor model.Methodological issues make interpreting most studies supporting a five-factor model challenging.

The purpose of this study was to re-evaluate the factor structure of the CSS using data from North American samples, to assess for potential factorial invariance, and compare these results to cross-cultural findings.Multiple confirmatory factor analyses (mCFA) were conducted across 28 different groups (e.g.

, age, ethnicity/race, sex) from two large independent North American samples from 2020 (n = 6827) and 2021 (n = 5787), assessing the fit indices of the five-, six-, and alternative-factor model of the CSS.The current results provide evidence for factorial invariance of the six-factor model of the CSS across here different North American demographics and highlight potential challenges in interpreting the results of studies that have supported a five-factor model of the CSS.