COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale

Abstract

The COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale (CSSS), developed by Ahn & Noh in 2023, is a 25-item psychometric instrument specifically designed to measure COVID-related stress across both cultural and individual levels, particularly relevant within a collectivistic society context, such as South Korea. The scale addresses limitations in previous assessments by incorporating cultural responses, guided by the Pathogen Prevalence Hypothesis, which suggests that strong collectivism drives unique psychological and cultural group reactions to health crises. The CSSS is structured around four empirically derived dimensions of “COVID-blues”: Individual Loneliness, Fear, Social Anger, and Socioeconomic Consequences. Development involved adapting existing items and generating new ones, followed by administration to adults in South Korea. Extensive psychometric evaluation, including Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), supported the robust 4-factor structure of the retained 25 items. The study also established strong evidence for reliability, validity, and Measurement Invariance across groups.

Keywords

COVID-blues Social Syndrome, COVID-19, COVID-Related Stress, Collectivistic Society, Individual Loneliness, Social Anger, Fear, Socioeconomic Consequences, Psychometric Scale

Authors

Ahn, Changhyun, Noh, Ghee Young

Purpose

The primary purpose of the COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale (CSSS) is to provide a culturally sensitive measure capable of evaluating the unique dimensions of stress and psychological distress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike previous measures focused solely on clinical or individual pathology, the CSSS aims to capture group-level cultural responses, such as Social Anger, which are highly relevant in a collectivistic setting where adherence to social norms and prevention guidelines is paramount.

This scale allows researchers and clinicians to assess the intertwined individual (e.g., loneliness, fear) and societal (e.g., anger, economic insecurity) impacts of a large-scale health crisis, offering a more holistic view of psychological adaptation in high-collectivism cultures.

Construct

The CSSS measures the psychological construct of “COVID-blues Social Syndrome,” defined as the multifaceted stress response arising from the pandemic within a collectivistic cultural framework. The construct is theoretically grounded in the Pathogen Prevalence Hypothesis, emphasizing that societal responses must be evaluated alongside individual psychological distress.

The scale is hypothesized and confirmed to consist of four latent factors:

• Individual Loneliness (IL): Reflecting feelings of isolation, lack of companionship, and being disconnected from others during social distancing measures.
• Fear (FE): Measuring direct anxiety and dread related to contracting COVID-19 or losing one’s life due to the virus.
• Social Anger (SA): Capturing collective frustration and hostility directed toward individuals perceived as violating public health guidelines (e.g., failing to wear masks or adhere to social distancing).
• Socioeconomic Consequences (SC): Assessing insecurity, worry, and fear regarding the impact of the pandemic on personal economic activity, employment, and future career prospects.

Validity

The psychometric development of the CSSS provided strong evidence for both convergent and discriminant validity.

Convergent Validity: Strong convergent validity was established, as indicated by the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values for each latent factor, which consistently exceeded the threshold of .62. This suggests that the items within each factor are measuring their intended construct adequately.

Discriminant Validity: The scale demonstrated robust discriminant validity. The AVE values for each latent factor were found to be higher than the squared correlation values between factors. This finding confirms that the four dimensions of the CSSS (Loneliness, Fear, Social Anger, Socioeconomic Consequences) are distinct and separate psychological constructs.

Reliability

The CSSS exhibits high internal consistency, confirming the dependability of the measurement instrument across all dimensions.

Internal Consistency: The overall reliability of the 25-item scale was exceptionally high, yielding a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .93. Furthermore, the Composite Reliability (CR) values calculated for each of the four latent factors consistently surpassed .90, indicating a highly reliable and consistent measurement within each subscale.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale was rigorously tested using both exploratory and confirmatory statistical methods on data collected from adult respondents in South Korea.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): An initial pool of items was refined, resulting in the removal of four items that showed low loading or cross-loading across dimensions. The EFA was conducted on the final 25 items using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method with varimax rotation. The PCA results strongly supported a four-factor solution, which collectively explained 77.12% of the total variance, with an eigenvalue of 1.78 for the primary factor.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): Subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated excellent model fit for the hypothesized four-factor structure. Key fit indices included a χ2/df ratio of 10.81 (p < .001), a Comparative Fit Index (CFI) of .93, a Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) of .92, a Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) of .08, and a Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) of .06. These values confirm that the empirical data aligns well with the theoretical structure.

Measurement Invariance: Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) was performed on the 25-item model. The results successfully established configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across different groups, confirming that the scale functions equivalently and measures the same construct consistently regardless of subgroup membership.

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: The CSSS utilizes a 7-point Likert-type scale format. Response anchors vary slightly depending on the item phrasing, typically ranging from 1 (not at all/I do not feel this at all) to 7 (very much/I feel this very strongly). Administration is electronic (online).

Language Available: Korean

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older), covering Young Adulthood (18-29 years), Thirties (30-39 years), Middle Age (40-64 years), Aged (65 years and older), and Very Old (85 years and older).

Population Details: The scale was developed and validated using adult respondents residing in South Korea, reflecting the focus on a collectivistic society.

Test Methodology: The comprehensive methodology involved various psychometric evaluations, including Test Validity (Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency using Cronbach’s alpha and Composite Reliability), and Factor Analysis (Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, and Measurement Invariance).

Keywords

COVID-blues Social Syndrome, COVID-19, Collectivism, Psychometrics, Social Stress, Loneliness, Social Anger, Economic Fear, South Korea

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Noh, Ghee Young: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4446-4726

Affiliation:

• Ahn, Changhyun: Hallym University, Health and New Media Research Institute
• Noh, Ghee Young: Hallym University, Media School

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Noh, Ghee Young: [email protected]

Correspondence Address:

• Noh, Ghee Young: Hallym University, Media School, 1, Hallymdaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Korea, Republic of, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Publisher

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Ahn, C., & Noh, G. Y. (2023). Development and validation of Korean ‘COVID-blues’ Social Syndrome Scale.

Journal of Health Communication, 28(12), 846–855. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2023.2279668

Ahorsu, D. K., Lin, C. Y., Imani, V., Saffari, M., Griffiths, M. D., & Pakpour, A. H. (2020). The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and initial validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 19(5), 1537–1545. No data is Available

Luchetti, M., Lee, J. H., Aschwanden, D., Sesker, A., Strickhouser, J. E., Terracciano, A., & Sutin, A. R. (2020). The trajectory of loneliness in response to COVID-19. American Psychologist, 75(7), 897–900. No data is Available

Items of the COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale

The COVID-blues Social Syndrome Scale comprises 25 items distributed across four factors:

• Individual loneliness (IL)

• Fear (FE)

• Social anger (SA)

• Socioeconomic consequences (SC)

Instructions: These are the emotions that most people can feel on a daily basis during the COVID-19 situation. To what extent do you feel? …

(IL1) … lack companionship.
(IL2) … left out.
(IL3) … isolated from others.
(IL4) … alone.
(IL5) … not “in tune” with other people.
(IL6) … lack of people I can turn to.
(IL7) … lack of people to talk to.
(IL8) … lack of people that understand me.
(IL9) … not being part of a group.
(IL10) … lack of people who have a lot in common with me.
(FE1) I am afraid of losing my life because of COVID-19.
(FE2) When hearing news and stories about COVID-19 on SNS or social media, I become nervous or anxious.
(FE3) I cannot sleep because I’m worrying about COVID-19.
(FE4) My heart races when I think about getting COVID-19.
(SA1) I feel angry when I see people who don’t wear masks.
(SA2) People who don’t wear mask deserve to be severely punished.
(SA3) I think people who don’t follow prevention guideline of health authorities are threatening social order.
(SA4) I feel the urge to correct those who wear their masks below their nose or chin.
(SA5) I feel angry when I see people who don’t care about social distancing levels.
(SA7) I feel urge to swear at person who didn’t wear mask in crowded places.
(SA9) I think people who go out to crowded places when social distancing levels are above 2nd degree are terrorists who threaten our society.
(SC1) I feel COVID-19 threaten my economic activity.
(SC2) I feel insecure about future of my current business or current job because of COVID-19.
(SC3) I fear that my revenue or business getting cut off before COVID-19 situation ends.
(SC4) I worry that my career is cut off because of COVID-19 when I get a new job or when I get reemployed.

Note. IL=Individual Loneliness; FE=Fear; SA=Social Anger; SC=Socioeconomic Consequences. Response options include: 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much) and 1 (I do not feel this at all) to 7 (I feel this very strongly).