STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY-PSIKOLOJI CALISMALARI DERGISI, vol.41, no.2, pp.711-734, 2021 (ESCI)
Understanding people's psychological reactions to the pandemic is important in controlling the spread of disease and preventing psychological disorders associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on anxiety as a psychological reaction to the coronavirus pandemic. It aims to produce a Turkish adaptation of the Coronavirus Anxiety Inventory (CAI; Wheaton, Ward, Sanders, Keel, & van Meter, 2020) and examine its reliability and validity. The study participants consisted of 428 undergraduate students (335 females and 93 males) aged between 18 and 32 years. The researchers used Mplus and K programs for data analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to test the construct validity of the Turkish adaptation. Moreover, using correlation analysis. the researchers examined the relationship between CAI and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated to test the reliability of the scale. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single-factor structure of the CAI with nine items had adequate lit indices. that is, it showed good features in terms of measuring coronavirus-related anxiety. Item factor loadings changed between 0.56 and 0.81. and Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was 0.84. A statistically significant difference was found between the scores of the upper and lower 27% groups. Furthermore, statistically significant positive relationships between CAI and DASS were noted. Consequently. this study provides a number of evidences that the Turkish adaptation of CAI with nine items based on a seven-point Likert-type scale was a reliable and valid instrument for measuring coronavirus-related anxiety in undergraduate students. This research uses CAI to determine university students' anxiety levels amid the CONID-19 pandemic. The researchers suggest that particular attention should be given to a balanced distribution in terms of gender and age in future studies.