The Identification With All Humanity (IWAH) scale: its psychometric properties and associations with help-seeking during COVID-19

Yi Feng; Helmut Warmenhoven; Amanda Wilson; Yu Jin; Runsen Chen; Yuanyuan Wang; Katarzyna Hamer

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03607-9

The Identification With All Humanity (IWAH) scale: its psychometric properties and associations with help-seeking during COVID-19

Curr Psychol. 2022 Aug 25:1-13. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03607-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yi Feng^#^{1

2}, Helmut Warmenhoven^#³, Amanda Wilson^#⁴, Yu Jin⁵, Runsen Chen^{6

7}, Yuanyuan Wang^{4

8

9}, Katarzyna Hamer¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Mental Health Center, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China.
² Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³ Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China.
⁴ Division of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
⁵ College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China.
⁶ Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China.
⁷ Institute for Healthy China, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
⁹ School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
¹⁰ Institute of Psychology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The Identification With All Humanity (IWAH) scale was designed to measure the extent to which an individual identifies oneself with all human beings. The current research aimed to conduct the validation of IWAH in a Chinese population and its convergent validity, as well as test the implications of IWAH in associations with help-seeking behaviour during COVID-19. A serial of three studies was conducted from September 1st 2020 to the end of October 2020. The series of studies included Study 1- Exploring the dimensions of the IWAH scale with a sample of 2,881 participants, Study 2- Confirmatory Factor Analysis for the Chinese IWAH dimensions with a separate sample of 6,667 participants, and Study 3- Role of the IWAH in the COVID-19 pandemic with a sample of 9,046 participants. Study 1 found the Chinese version of the IWAH scale to be a two-dimensional construct, with factor 1 - Bond with Humanity and factor 2 - Human Kinship. Study 2 confirmed the two-factor construct as found in Study 1. It also showed positive relations between IWAH and moral judgement, collectivism, nature connectedness, and negative relations with callousness, and having anxiety and depressive symptoms. Study 3 found that IWAH was negatively related to fear of COVID-19 and positively related to the likeliness of help-seeking. This is the first research to test the factorial structure of the IWAH scale in a Chinese population, with the adaptation showing good psychometric properties. The implication of IWAH on fear of COVID-19 and help-seeking provided further understanding of the possible practical value of IWAH during times of global stressful life events. Furthermore, study 3 is the first to explore how IWAH relates to anxiety, depression, and callousness.

Keywords: COVID-19; China; The identification with all humanity (IWAH) scale; Validation.

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