Proceedings of The 11th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences
Year: 2020
DOI:
The Development and Validation of COVID-19 Prevention Behaviour Scale on Female Hungarian Population
Kinga Kalcza-Janosi, Susana Jancso-Farcas, Kinga Szabo1, Ibolya Kotta, Eszter Eniko Marschalko
ABSTRACT:
In the emergency situation of an ongoing global pandemic, disease prevention behaviour is essential. However, after probing into the relevant scientific literature, we cannot find any validated tools or scales measuring preventive behaviour. The objective of this study was to develop and validate the Hungarian version of COVID-19 prevention behaviour scale (Covid-19-PBS). The items address major aspects related to preventive behaviour towards COVID-19 inspired by preliminary pandemic studies and the WHO prevention recommendations. 612 eligible female individuals were included in the study, the sample was recruited from the Hungarian general population, aged between 18 to 65 years. According to preliminary studies women are more likely to engage proactively in prevention behaviour, they perceive the risk of a disease more profoundly and even disease information seeking was more prevalent among women. An exploratory factor analysis was performed for this new scale, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis. According to our results, the model fit indices are adequate (CFI= .928, RMSEA= .064). Cronbach’s alpha was used to examine the reliability of the factors, the internal validity of the scale is good (α = .78). The final instrument contains 11 items with responses scored on a 4-point Likert scale and 3 domains: general hygiene, social distancing and COVID-19 information-seeking behaviour. Our results have revealed that the new scale has good psychometric properties and may be a useful instrument for assessing COVID-19 preventive behaviour across women.
Keywords: pandemic; assessment tool; general hygiene; social distancing; COVID-19 information-seeking behaviour.