A French validation of the short Need For Affect scale

Abstract

IntroductionThe way we interact with our environment depends on our spontaneous tendency to approach or to avoid emotional experiences triggered by that environment. This dimension of the emotional experience is called the need for affect, that is, the tendency of individuals to adopt approaching or avoidance behaviour with regard to emotional stimuli. MethodsThe Need For Affect (NFA) Scale has been the subject of numerous studies since the validation of the original version (Maio & Esses, 2001) and its short version (Appel et al., 2012). However, no validation of the latter scale has been conducted in French. We propose a French version of the short NFA scale on a student sample and a sample from the general population. ResultsWe found the structure of the original scale in a French translation (of the English version). In addition, invariance tests showed that this structure remained the same for both samples. ConclusionWe recommend the use of this version of the short NFA scale for studies conducted on French-speaking samples.