Suchergebnisse

Background: The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) is a brief self-report measure developed at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The scale evaluates the emotional responses to COVID-19. To date, the FCV-19S has been translated and validated in about 20 languages and has been used in many published research. The current study aimed to validate the Polish version of the FCV-19S. Method: The FCV-19S was translated into Polish using forward- and back-translation. From May 15th to June 15th 2020, a total of 708 community members (Sample 1: 383 persons, 209 females, Sample 2: 325 persons, 198 females) participated in the online study. The participants were recruited using online advertisements in social media. Participation was anonymous, voluntary, and without compensation. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the one-factor structure of the FCV-19S. Then, measurement invariance was analyzed across samples, gender and age groups. To assess the validity of the scale, correlations between the FCV-19S and the remaining scales were computed. Results: Internal consistency of the FCV-19S was good in both samples (Cronbach's alpha 0.89 and 0.85). The CFA showed that the one-factor model fits the data well (RMSEA = 0.067, 90% CI [0.059–0.094], CFI = 0.977, TLI = 0.965, GFI = 0.986). The criteria for configural, metric, scalar and strict invariance were met for all models tested. The FCV-19S scores correlated significantly with age, subjective vulnerability to the disease, neuroticism, self-reported compliance with the pandemic measures, and three kinds of preventive behavior (i.e., social distancing, hand hygiene, and disinfecting things). Conclusion: The Polish version of the FCV-19S had a unidimensional structure, good reliability, and correlated as predicted with other variables. With the FCV-19S and the obtained results, healthcare professionals, researchers, and the government can gain more valuable information about people who may be at risk for negative psychological outcomes during the pandemic or who are not implementing protective behavior. The tool can be used in hospitals to quickly screen the level of fear in patients and minimize its severe adverse consequences.

The pandemic COVID-19 became a challenge for both societies and governments. While most countries and citizens reacted similarly to the unknown strength of the virus at the start of the pandemic, the situation in each country began to vary more and more each month. Poland and Slovakia are interesting cases in this context. One year after the WHO declared a pandemic, these countries are experiencing one of the worst crises in history. In Poland, despite the initial social mobilisation, after a very short time, many government decisions ceased to be perceived as protecting citizens. In the first period of the pandemic, the Slovak government coped with the situation much better, which changed significantly in the autumn of 2020. The article aims to analyse how an active "rally 'round the flag" effect and the resulting natural potential for social mobilisation to fight the pandemic were wasted in Poland and Slovakia due to irresponsible political decisions undermining the citizens 'trust in the governments' good intentions.

The concept of trust in the context of voting behavior is difficult to define, because it is not a factor specific solely to this domain. Firstly, trust is an essential element of social life. It is the essence of social capital that has signifi can't impact on many issues – education, economic growth, crime level, quality of functioning of the democratic institutions, community of the citizens. Secondly, in large partly due to the multiple contexts of use of this concept, there are difficulties as regards distinguishing it from related concepts such as empathy, community, respect, kindness, brotherhood, esteem, unity. Despite the many shortcomings and imperfections in the concept of trust, it appears that the concept is well understood intuitively – individuals answering questions in surveys on trust seem to understand the concept very well, and their expressed trust level is proportionate to their individually observable behaviour.

The 3rd International Asian Congress The Changing Role of Asia in the Contemporary World. Toruń, (18–20 May, 2016), Towarzystwo Azji i Pacyfiku.

Research on electoral identifications and attitudes and voting behavior is among the most popular planes of analysis of the citizens' political participation. The presented article is a report from research carried out in the framework of the project "Political Preferences: Attitude – Identification – Behavior" in 2009 – 2014. It discusses the main assumptions and research directions, the tools used and, finally, the results obtained in the project. The presented research project is of a nationwide character, and is conducted on a representative sample of voters.