Validity and reliability of the Serbian COVID Stress Scales

Abstract

Thisstudyaimedtogenerate alinguistic equivalent oftheCOVIDStressScales(CSS)in theSerbianlanguage andexamine itspsychometric characteristics. Datawerecollected fromSeptember toDecember 2A20amongthegeneral population ofthreecitiesinRepublic ofSerbiaandRepublic ofSrpska, countries wheretheSerbianlanguage isspoken. participantscompleted asocio-demographic questionnaire, followedbytheCSSandperceived stressscale(PSS). Thecss wasvalidated usingthestandard methodology (i.e., forward andbackward translations, pilotesting). Thereliability oftheSerbianCSSwasassessed usingCronbach's alphaandMcDonald's omegacoefficients andconvergent validitywas evaluated bycorrelating theGSSwithPSS.Confirmatory factoranalysis wasperformed to examine theconstruct validity oftheSerbianCSS.Thisstudyincluded 961persons (SZ.gy. malesand47.2hfemales). TheCronbach's alphacoetficient oftheSerbianCSSwas0.964 andMcDonald's omegawas0.964. TheSerbianCSSwith36itemsandasix-factorial structureshoweda measurement model withasatisfactory fitforourpopulation (cMlN/DF= 4.391; GFI=0.991; RMSEA=0.025). TheCSStotat andalldomain scoresignificanily pos_ itivelycorrelated withPSStotalscore. TheSerbian versionoftheCSSisavalidandreliable questionnaire thatcanbeusedinassessing COVID-1 9-related distress experienced bySerbianspeaking peopleduringthecovlD-19pandemic aswellasfutureepidemics and pandemics