**3. Results**

#### *3.1. Descriptive Analysis*

The mean age was 40.87 (SD = 12.42) in a range of 18 to 76. The gender distribution was 67.2% (n = 681) women and 32.8% (n = 333) men, with a mean age of 39.88 (SD = 12.35)

and 42.92 (SD = 12.33), respectively. Over 90% of the sample was single (30.9%) or married (60.1%). Over 90% had a secondary or higher education (16% and 78.7%, respectively). When asked if they had minor children, 35.9% (364) answered affirmatively (see Table 2). And finally, only 16.4% (n = 166) had someone COVID-19 positive close to them.


**Table 2.** Sociodemographic characteristics of the participants.

Potential explanatory variables were selected by descriptive analysis of their relationships with perceived threat. The quantitative variables were examined with bivariate correlations, in which no correlation with perceived threat was found for age: *r* = 0.05, *p* = 0.092, 95% *CI* (−0.009; 0.114). Education, coded on a scale in ascending order from 0 = "no education" to 3 = "higher education", correlated negatively to perceived threat: *r* = −0.08, *p* < 0.01; 95% *CI* (−0.149; −0.027). No statistically significant between-group differences were observed by marital status (*F* = 2.03; *p* = 0.108) in the analysis of perceived threat.

However, differences were detected (t1012 = −5.15; *p* < 0,001; d = 0.34) by gender (Figure 1a), in which women perceived higher threat (M = 31.47; SD = 6.29) than men (M = 29.21; SD = 7.03). Furthermore, those with minor children in their care (M = 31.50; SD = 6.63) differed significantly (t1012 = −2.77; *p* < 0,01; d = 0.18) from those who did not (M = 30.30; SD = 6.59), where the first scored higher in perceived threat from COVID-19 (Figure 1b).
