Peñacoba-Puente, CeciliaLuque-Reca, OctavioGriffiths, Mark D.García-Hedrera, Fernando J.Carmona-Monge, F. JavierGil-Almagro, Fernanda2024-06-272024-06-272024-05-18Peñacoba-Puente, C., Luque-Reca, O., Griffiths, M.D. et al. The effects of fear of COVID-19 among Spanish healthcare professionals in three years after the pandemic onset via validation of the FCV-19S: a prospective study. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06113-21936-4733 (online)1046-1310 (print)https://hdl.handle.net/10115/35401Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research has been carried out without fundingDespite being validated in different populations to assess fear of COVID-19, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) has scatter validations in healthcare professionals, often with several limitations, especially in Spanish-speaking professionals. Our research aims to extend previous studies by: (i) using a large sample of Spanish nurses and physicians; (ii) incorporating longitudinal data; and (iii) using a covariance-based SEM methodology to test different factor structures. 686 Spanish healthcare professionals (M = 42.7 years; 80.5% women; 76.7% nurses) participated in 2021 (Time 1), of whom, 216 were reassessed one year later (Time 2). The results (S-Bχ2 = 69.134, df = 13, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.974, and SRMR ≤ 0.031) supported a two-factor structure with a factor of somatic reactions and another of emotional expressions of fear of COVID-19. The FCV-19S evidenced strong factorial measurement invariance regarding gender, professional category, age and professional experience and also showed significantly higher levels of fear of COVID-19 in women, nurses, and professionals under 40 years old. The internal consistency was high for the somatic factor (ω = 0.86; α = 0.85), the emotional factor (ω = 0.82; α = 0.82) and the overall scale (α = 0.89). The scale showed good convergent, divergent, and incremental validity with respect to psychological symptomatology, perceived health, burnout, and worry about contagion. Finally, the FCV-19S showed criterion validity regarding generalized anxiety disorder, burnout, and the risk of leaving the profession. The FCV-19S evidenced excellent psychometric properties in Spanish healthcare professionals and was predictive of different health outcomes one year after administration. Study implications and limitations are also discussedengAtribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/COVID-19FCV-19SFearHealthcare professionalsMental healthSpainValidationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article10.1007/s12144-024-06113-2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess