Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the “COVID Stress Scales” in Greek

  1. Petros Galanis
  2. Irene Vraka
  3. Aglaia Katsiroumpa
  4. Olympia Konstantakopoulou
  5. Olga Siskou
  6. Eleftheria Zogaki
  7. Daphne Kaitelidou

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several instruments were developed to measure the psychological impact of COVID-19, such as fear, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, phobia, etc.

Objective

To adapt cross-cultural and validate the “COVID Stress Scales” in Greek.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study with 200 participants between November 2021 to February 2022. All participants were adults, and a convenience sample was obtained. We applied the forward-backward translation method to create a Greek version of the “COVID Stress Scales”. We assessed reliability of the questionnaire with test-retest method in a 10-day window, and we assessed validity of the questionnaire with exploratory factor analysis.

Results

Our five-factor model explained 72% of the variance and totally confirmed the factors of the initial “COVID Stress Scales”. In particular, we found the following five factors: (a) COVID-19 danger and contamination (eleven items), (b) COVID-19 socioeconomic consequences (six items), (c) COVID-19 xenophobia (six items), (d) COVID-19 traumatic stress (six items), and (e) COVID-19 compulsive checking (six items). Cronbach’s coefficients alpha for the five factors that emerged from the exploratory factor analysis were greater than 0.89 indicating excellent internal reliability.

Conclusions

We found that the “COVID Stress Scales” is a reliable and valid tool to measure stress due to the COVID-19 in the Greek population.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.02.28.22271615: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0 Armonk, NY, USA).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitations: Our study has several limitations. According to our knowledge, this is the first study that assesses the validity of the “COVID Stress Scales”. We found that reliability and validity of the scale was excellent but further studies in different populations and settings should test the psychometric properties of the scale. Also, our sample comprised 200 participants, thus studies with larger and more representative samples could add more information regarding the “COVID Stress Scales”. More sophisticated analysis such as confirmatory factor analysis could be applied to confirm or not our results.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2022.02.28.22271615 on medRxiv