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Background: With concern over the rise in mental health symptoms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study set out to address the absence of pandemic-specific screening tools for detecting those in Chinese societies who are at-risk for experiencing mental distress due to the pandemic; thus, its aim was to validate the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) and Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (OCS) in Chinese adults., Methods: With a two-stage cluster random sampling method, we surveyed 1011 Chinese community-dwelling adults (38.8% men; 41.2 years old on average with an SD of 15.8) in June and July of 2020., Results: Our psychometric evaluation results showed that the Chinese version of CAS and OCS retained their original one-dimensional structure and demonstrated measurement invariance across genders. In line with validation studies of the CAS and OCS in other languages, subsequent analyses also provided support to our Chinese version with respect to their satisfactory internal consistency (α = .87 and .73, respectively), and good concurrent validity (i.e., positive associations with negative feelings, excessive time-consumption, subjective distress, and functioning impairment)., Limitations: Due to constraints of time and cross-sectional design, we only validated CAS and OCS among Chinese adults and did not evaluate their test-retest reliability nor predictive validity., Conclusions: Considering the practical benefits of understanding the source of mental symptoms during the pandemic, we recommend the use of CAS and OCS in Chinese communities to facilitate early identification and intervention for those who require clinical attention due to their COVID-19 related anxiety and obsessive thoughts., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Smartphone technologies have played a crucial role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the increased use of smartphones during the pandemic period may expose the general public to a higher risk of problematic smartphone use (PSU). This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of PSU among Chinese community adults and adopted a social-cognitive theory and social axiom framework to evaluate the effects of beliefs on PSU. A Chinese adult sample ( N = 616) was obtained through probability sampling via a telephone survey from Macao, China and included 591 smartphone users' data (39.4% men) for formal analysis. The prevalence of PSU was 43.3% in the overall sample, with 41.9% in women, and 45.5% in men. Two types of beliefs derived from the social-cognitive theory, pandemic-related self-efficacy and government efficacy, both showed significant and negative correlations with PSU ( r = -0.13 and -0.10, p < 0.05). As for the two beliefs from the social axiom framework, reward for application was negatively correlated with PSU ( r = -0.10, p < 0.05), whereas social cynicism was positively associated with PSU ( r = 0.25, p < 0.001). Among those four beliefs, social cynicism exerted the most substantial effect on PSU when controlling for demographics. Our findings enriched the understanding of PSU during the pandemic and provided empirical direction regarding cognition-based intervention strategies for reducing PSU.