Development and Validation of Attitude towards Corona Virus Vaccine Scale (ATCVVS)

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (2020). SARS-CoV-2 first appeared in Wuhan (Hubei, China) in late 2019 and has quickly spread to 220 nations (Helm et al., 2020). Vaccines, according to Hajj Hussein et al. (2015), are one of the most reliable and cost-effective public health measures ever implemented, saving millions of lives each year. The aim of the present study is to develop an indigenous and comprehensive scale to Measure Attitude toward Corona Virus Vaccine in the general population of Pakistan and to establish its psychometric properties. Empirical approach was used for construction of scale and convenience sampling used for data collection. The present study consisted of two phases. The first phase of study consists of four steps. The first phase is based on development of initial items pool, through focus group discussions with participants, and interview with psychologist, psychiatrist and formulation of items and then item development and validation. The phase two based on establishing psychometric properties of attitude toward corona virus vaccine scale. The total sample was 502 and data was collected from 322 participants by using ATCVVS for convergent and divergent validity and 200 sample for EFA. Data was analyzed through exploratory factor analysis. Convergent and divergent validity was also ensured. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and reliability analysis revealed the highly satisfactory internal consistency for attitude towards corona virus vaccine and its four subscales, (a) acceptance of vaccine (AV), (b) non-acceptance of vaccine (NAV), (c) hesitant to vaccine (HTV), (d) knowledge of vaccination (KV).