[French validation of the Anger Rumination Scale]

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Anger rumination, involving cognitive responses like angry afterthoughts and revenge fantasies, is often seen as unconstructive.
• However, rumination can function as a cognitive coping strategy for negative events.
• The Anger Rumination Scale (ARS) assesses these cognitive responses to anger.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a French version of the Anger Rumination Scale (ARS).
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the French ARS for assessing anger rumination.

Main Methods:

• Cultural adaptation and translation of the original ARS into French.
• Administered the French ARS to 617 undergraduate students.
• Assessed reliability (test-retest) and validity (convergent, discriminant) using STAXI-II and Aggression Questionnaire (AQ).
• Employed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for structural validation.

Main Results:

• Exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure, consistent with the original ARS.
• Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a good model fit for the four-factor solution.
• The French ARS demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha coefficients 0.60–0.86) and test-retest reliability (0.65–0.70).
• External validity indices supported relationships with anger and aggression measures.

Conclusions:

• The French version of the ARS is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring anger rumination.
• This multifactorial scale can be utilized to explore cognitive processes underlying aggressive behaviors.
• The validated scale offers a tool for research in contexts where aggressive behavior is restricted or detrimental.