Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)

Background. The COVID Stress Scales (CSS) assess COVID-related stress experienced in the past week related to danger and contamination fears, socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, compulsive checking, and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms. Our objective was to provide a translatio...

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Autores principales: Del Casale, Antonio, Modesti, Martina Nicole, Lai, Carlo, Carola, Valeria, Mimun, Simone, Bruzzese, Alba, Speranza, Anna Maria, Drakes, Dalainey H., Asmundson, Gordon J. G., Nicolais, Giampaolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37685747
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12175680
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author Del Casale, Antonio
Modesti, Martina Nicole
Lai, Carlo
Carola, Valeria
Mimun, Simone
Bruzzese, Alba
Speranza, Anna Maria
Drakes, Dalainey H.
Asmundson, Gordon J. G.
Nicolais, Giampaolo
author_facet Del Casale, Antonio
Modesti, Martina Nicole
Lai, Carlo
Carola, Valeria
Mimun, Simone
Bruzzese, Alba
Speranza, Anna Maria
Drakes, Dalainey H.
Asmundson, Gordon J. G.
Nicolais, Giampaolo
author_sort Del Casale, Antonio
collection PubMed
description Background. The COVID Stress Scales (CSS) assess COVID-related stress experienced in the past week related to danger and contamination fears, socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, compulsive checking, and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms. Our objective was to provide a translation into Italian, replication, and psychometric validation of the CSS in the general population. Moreover, we aimed to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the Italian CSS (CSS-I) with respect to anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in the general Italian population. Method. Adult participants (n = 935) over the age of 18 years were recruited from the general population in Italy. Psychological status was assessed using multiple validated measures, including the CSS, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and the Prejudice Against Immigrants Scale (PAIS). Results. Our confirmatory factor analysis supported a 6-factor model, including danger fears (DAN), socioeconomic consequences (SEC), xenophobia (XEN), compulsive checking and reassurance seeking (CHE), contamination fears (CON), and traumatic stress symptoms (TSS). Strong reliability of the CSS-I (Cronbach’s α = 0.863–0.936) and convergent validity with the DASS-21 and PAI were established with positive correlations between total and scale scores across measures. Conclusions. The CSS-I is a valid and reliable instrument to measure COVID-19-related distress in the Italian population.
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spelling pubmed-104887802023-09-09 Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I) Del Casale, Antonio Modesti, Martina Nicole Lai, Carlo Carola, Valeria Mimun, Simone Bruzzese, Alba Speranza, Anna Maria Drakes, Dalainey H. Asmundson, Gordon J. G. Nicolais, Giampaolo J Clin Med Article Background. The COVID Stress Scales (CSS) assess COVID-related stress experienced in the past week related to danger and contamination fears, socioeconomic consequences, xenophobia, compulsive checking, and reassurance seeking, and traumatic stress symptoms. Our objective was to provide a translation into Italian, replication, and psychometric validation of the CSS in the general population. Moreover, we aimed to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the Italian CSS (CSS-I) with respect to anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in the general Italian population. Method. Adult participants (n = 935) over the age of 18 years were recruited from the general population in Italy. Psychological status was assessed using multiple validated measures, including the CSS, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and the Prejudice Against Immigrants Scale (PAIS). Results. Our confirmatory factor analysis supported a 6-factor model, including danger fears (DAN), socioeconomic consequences (SEC), xenophobia (XEN), compulsive checking and reassurance seeking (CHE), contamination fears (CON), and traumatic stress symptoms (TSS). Strong reliability of the CSS-I (Cronbach’s α = 0.863–0.936) and convergent validity with the DASS-21 and PAI were established with positive correlations between total and scale scores across measures. Conclusions. The CSS-I is a valid and reliable instrument to measure COVID-19-related distress in the Italian population. MDPI 2023-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10488780/ /pubmed/37685747 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12175680 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Del Casale, Antonio
Modesti, Martina Nicole
Lai, Carlo
Carola, Valeria
Mimun, Simone
Bruzzese, Alba
Speranza, Anna Maria
Drakes, Dalainey H.
Asmundson, Gordon J. G.
Nicolais, Giampaolo
Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title_full Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title_fullStr Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title_full_unstemmed Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title_short Anxiety Symptoms, COVID-19-Related Stress Reactions in the Italian General Population, and Validation of the Italian COVID Stress Scales (CSS-I)
title_sort anxiety symptoms, covid-19-related stress reactions in the italian general population, and validation of the italian covid stress scales (css-i)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37685747
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12175680
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