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Validity of a scale of Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic (MED-LAT-COVID-19)
Author(s)
Garlisi-Torales, Luciana Daniela
Universidad del Pacífico
Aveiro-Róbalo, Telmo Raul
Universidad del Pacífico
Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola
Vilela-Estrada, Martín A.
Antenor Orrego Private University
Serna-Alarcón, Victor
Antenor Orrego Private University
Kam-Artime, Alexandra I.
Latin University of Panama
Garcia-Aldama, Sheila E.
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
Arias-Chavez, Dennis
Universidad Continental
Rodriguez-Alarcon, J. Franco
Universidad Ricardo Palma
Mejia, Christian R.
Universidad Norbert Wiener
Date Issued
1 de septiembre de 2022
Type
Article
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Volume
8
Issue
9
Series/Report No.
Heliyon
Contained in
Heliyon
ISSN
2405-8440
Abstract
Introduction The pandemic has caused fear, especially due to the daily disseminated news; however, there is not an instrument to measure this fear in multiple realities. Objective To validate a scale for Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic. Methodology This is an instrumental study. The survey was based on an instrument which was pre-validated in Peru and submitted to 15 experts in almost 10 countries. Subsequently, thousands of people were surveyed in 13 Latin American countries, whose answers were used for descriptive statistics for validation. Results Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) generated two re-specifications, where four items were eliminated from the original scale. With these changes, the global goodness of fit (absolute and incremental) were satisfactory (CFI = 0.978; TLI = 0.964; GFI = 0.976; AGFI = 0.949; RMSEA = 0.075 and RMR = 0.029). The first factor measures the media exaggeration (three questions); the second, the fear transmitted by the media (three questions); and the third, the fear transmitted by others different from the media (two questions). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was higher than 0.70 for the scale and its factors. Conclusion The MED-LAT-COVID-19 scale reported a good adjustment. It has eight items in three factors, which could be measured in an isolated way, or along with other tests that assess mental health in the current pandemic context.