{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T06:10:55Z","timestamp":1760422255233,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760400000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012226","name":"Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012226","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Individuals exhibit specific behavioral responses to fear and stress. The Pandemic Fear Perception and Adaptability Scale (PFPA) is a novel instrument designed to assess fear perception and behavioral adaptability in the context of pandemics.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 923 participants in China to evaluate the psychometric properties of the PFPA. After expert review, a 7-item scale was developed, comprising three subscales: self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility, and perceived threat. Classical test theory, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch modeling were used to assess the scale\u2019s reliability and validity.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The PFPA demonstrated good reliability, with an internal consistency (Cronbach\u2019s <jats:italic>\u03b1<\/jats:italic> = 0.700) and test-retest reliability (ICC(2,1) = 0.781, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001). Evidence of validity was supported by an average variance extracted of 0.563 and a composite reliability of 0.898. CFA indicated excellent model fit (\u03c7\u00b2(11) =15.123, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.177; CFI = 0.998, GFI = 0.995, TLI = 0.995, RMSEA = 0.020). Differential item functioning analysis showed minimal bias across gender and age.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study establishes the PFPA as a reliable and valid tool for assessing fear perception and behavioral adaptability, with potential to evaluate these constructs in other pandemic contexts. Given its initial development in a Chinese context, future research should examine its applicability across diverse cultural and linguistic settings.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1661940","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]],"date-time":"2025-10-14T05:30:02Z","timestamp":1760419802000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Development and validation of the pandemic fear perception and adaptability scale"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Mu","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Haiyan","family":"Qi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanyan","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mian","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1537","DOI":"10.1007\/s11469-020-00270-8","article-title":"The fear of COVID-19 scale: development and initial validation","volume":"20","author":"Ahorsu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. 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