2835 – French version of the hypomanic personality scale (HPS): factorial structure in a non-clinical student sample

Abstract

Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) is a self-report questionnaire designed to identify high risk and vulnerable subjects to bipolar disorders in non-clinical samples. To identify HPS factorial structure in a French non-clinical sample and to compare for different factors solutions described in the literature. We carried out a survey within a student population with a French version of HPS. The factorial structure of HPS was tested first by a scree plot with simulation (using R “psy” library) in an Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) with promax rotation. Secondly the number of factor was fixed for a Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) performed with AMOS. A total of 347 students (mean age 23 years, 80% of women) were included in PCA (incomplete questionnaires were not included). Scree Plot with simulation revealed a 5 factors solution which accounted for 33% of the total variance. We also tested the 3 and 4 factors solution to compare respectively with factors solution obtained by Rawling et al. (2000) and more recently by Schalet et al. (2011). Our 4 factors solution was identical to Rawling et al. (2000) but the 3 factors solution was different from Schalet et al. (2011). Goodness of fit indices showed that the 5 factors solution “fits” our data better compared to other factorial solutions. French version of the HPS showed a factorial structure composed of 5 factors in a non-clinical student population. However, this result needs to be confirmed with a more important and representative sample.