[The Need for Recovery Scale: French adaptation and validation.]

The study presents the French validation of the scale of Need for Recovery after work (Need for Recovery) as well as the average scores according to sex, age, occupation and branch of industry.

A representative sample of the French employees completed a questionnaire made up of the Need for Recovery Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey. Analyses of internal consistency led us to withdraw an item from original scale; validity as well as discriminating quality were evaluated with the adequate analyses.

The French version of the Need for Recovery Scale has very good psychometric qualities. Internal consistency (evaluated by Alpha of Cronbach) is 0.86. This scale is correlated mainly with the ?emotional exhaustion? dimension of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (r = 0.68). The analysis highlighted groups of French employees having levels of high need for recovery: men of less than 25 years, women of more than 55 years and people practicing the profession of Teachers and equivalents'.

Given its predictive value on the physical and psychological health of employees, we recommend an individual or collective use of the Need for Recovery Scale in order to set up preventive actions in the workplaces.