The Coronavirus Impact Scale: Construction, Validation, and Comparisons in Diverse Clinical Samples

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Family Studies
• Public Health

Background:

• The coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted families globally.
• Assessing this impact requires validated measurement tools.
• Existing measures may not capture diverse family experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Coronavirus Impact Scale.
• To assess the pandemic's impact on diverse family samples during its first wave.
• To examine differences in impact across various demographic and clinical groups.

Main Methods:

• The Coronavirus Impact Scale was administered to 572 caregivers across varied settings.
• Model-free methods analyzed the scale's internal structure and scoring.
• Multivariate ordinal regression identified sample-specific response differences.

Main Results:

• The scale demonstrated good internal consistency across clinical and research populations.
• Single, immigrant, Latinx mothers reported the most significant pandemic impact, especially on food and finances.
• Higher scale scores correlated with increased caregiver anxiety and stress.

Conclusions:

• The Coronavirus Impact Scale is a reliable tool for measuring pandemic impact.
• It exhibits adequate psychometric properties for diverse populations.
• Findings highlight specific vulnerabilities among certain caregiver groups.