*2.3. Instruments and Variables*

This study used the Perception of Threat from COVID-19 Questionnaire validated for an adult Spanish population [39]. The questionnaire consists of five items focused on the perception of threat from COVID-19 (Table 1), where the participants rate their agreement with the statements on a Likert-type scale of 0 to 10. The test offers an overall score on the representation of the disease, where the highest scores indicate greater perception of COVID-19 as a threat. This questionnaire showed acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.66).


**Table 1.** Items measured by the Perception of Threat from COVID-19 instrument (by author).

In addition, an ad hoc questionnaire on the following socio descriptive variables was included: Gender (man or woman), age, marital status (married, single, widowed or divorced), education (no education, primary school, high school and higher education), autonomous region, "Do you have any minor children?" (yes, no), "Is anyone close to you COVID-19 positive?" (yes, no).
