Publications by authors named "Claudio Rojas-Jara"

The general aim is to identify the explanatory potential of alcohol use intentions in drinking behaviors in a sample of adolescents in Ecuador. The method consists of a descriptive, explanatory, and cross-sectional study using SEM techniques. The participants were 384 adolescents (57% male and 43% female), aged 14-18 years (M = 16.

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Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the measurement invariance of a general measure of the perception of governmental responses to COVID-|19 (COVID-SCORE-10) in the general population of 13 Latin American countries.

Methods: A total of 5780 individuals from 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries selected by non-probabilistic snowball sampling participated. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed and the alignment method was used to evaluate invariance.

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The present study aimed to evaluate the measurement invariance of the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (OCS) among seven Latin American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Although the OCS has been used in several countries and languages, there is a need for approaches that better integrate the cross-cultural equivalence of the scale. A total of 3185 people participated in the study.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined how fear of COVID-19 influences people's intention to get vaccinated across 13 Latin American countries, focusing on the role of conspiracy beliefs as a mediator.
  • It involved 5,779 participants and used established scales to assess fear, conspiracy beliefs, and vaccination intention, analyzing the relationships through structural equation modeling.
  • Results showed that while fear of COVID-19 promoted vaccination intentions, conspiracy beliefs negatively impacted these intentions and acted as a mediator in this relationship, with consistent findings across the countries studied.
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Background: There is an urgent need to assess changes in well-being on a multinational scale during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus culturally valid scales must be available.

Methods: With this in mind, this study examined the invariance of the WHO well-being index (WHO-5) among a sample of 5183 people from 12 Latin Americans countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay).

Results: The results of the present study indicate that the WHO-5 is strictly invariant across samples from different Latin American countries.

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The present study examined how conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines specifically relate to symptoms of fear of COVID-19 in a sample of four South American countries. A total of 1785 people from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru participated, responding to a sociodemographic survey, the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19 S) and the Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale-COVID-19 (VCBS-COVID-19). Network analysis identified the most important symptoms of fear and conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines (nodes) and the associations between them (edges).

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Aims: Over the past 2 years, the vaccine conspiracy beliefs construct has been used in a number of different studies. These publications have assessed the determinants and outcomes of vaccine conspiracy beliefs using, in some cases, pooled data from different countries, and compared the results across these contexts. However, studies often do not consider measurement invariance as a necessary requirement for comparative analyses.

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Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 began to emerge immediately after the first news about the disease and threaten to prolong the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by limiting people's willingness of receiving a life-saving vaccine. In this context, this study aimed to explore the variation of conspiracy beliefs regarding COVID-19 and the vaccine against it in 5779 people living in 13 Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) according to sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, educational level and source of information about COVID-19. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic between September 15 and October 25, 2021.

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Unlabelled: The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) was recently developed to assess dysfunctional anxiety related to COVID-19. Although different studies reported that the CAS is psychometrically sound, it is unclear whether it is invariant across countries. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the measurement invariance of the CAS in twelve Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay).

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The invariance of the Preventive COVID-19 Infection Behaviors Scale (PCIBS) was evaluated in 12 Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). A total of 5183 people from the aforementioned countries participated, selected using the snowball sampling method. Measurement invariance was assessed by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) and Multi-Group Factor Analysis Alignment (CFA-MIAL).

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Objective: To translate into Spanish and evaluate the evidence of content validity, construct validity and reliability of the Cancer Worry Chart as a single item measure of worry for cancer.

Method: The Spanish translation of the Cancer Worry Chart was done with the back-translation procedure. The participants were 165 healthy people with a family history of cancer who responded to the Cancer Worry Chart and the Cancer Worry Scale (CWS).

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The objective of this study was to evaluate factors related to the mental health of Peruvian older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study had a cross-sectional and observational design. A total of 274 older adults in Lima, Peru (M = 67.

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Objective: To translate into Spanish and evaluate the evidence of content validity, construct validity and reliability of the Cancer Worry Chart as a single item measure of worry for cancer.

Method: The Spanish translation of the Cancer Worry Chart was done with the back-translation procedure. The participants were 165 healthy people with a family history of cancer who responded to the Cancer Worry Chart and the Cancer Worry Scale (CWS).

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