French adaptation of the Attentional Control Scale: Confirmatory factor analyses and relationship with trait anxiety and efficiency of orienting, alerting, and executive control attentional networks

Abstract

BackgroundThe Attentional Control Scale (ACS) is a self-report questionnaire that measures individual differences in attentional control. ObjectiveThis study compared four models of the French version of the ACS and examined its links to trait anxiety and three attentional networks (orienting, alerting, and executive control) measured with the Attention Network Test (ANT). ResultsConfirmatory analyses conducted with a sample of 284 university students supported a two-factor (focusing and shifting) model. For 59 participants who completed the ANT, we found a positive correlation between focusing and the executive control network, while shifting was negatively correlated with alerting and orienting. Trait anxiety was negatively correlated with focusing and the alerting and executive control networks. ConclusionResults are discussed with a view to improving the assessment of attentional control, a key executive dimension for emotion regulation and attentional disengagement in anxiety.