Validation of the French version of Brandtstadter and Renner's Tenacious Goal Pursuit (TGP) and Flexible Goal Adjustment (FGA) scales

Introduction. - Despite the potential usefulness of the TGP/FGA scales (Brandtstadter and Renner, 1990) for studying the way people adapt with age, there is little psychometric evidence supporting the validity of the construct of either scale. Objective. - The aim of the study was to develop a French version of Brandtstadter's TGP/FGA scales in order to provide a self-report measure for French people in the field of gerontology. Method. - Two studies involving 677 participants were conducted to evaluate the construct validity, reliability and convergence validity of these scales. Results. - In accordance with Brandtstadter, two factors emerged from the exploratory factorial analysis (study 1): tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment. However, 10 items were removed because of factorial loadings. A confirmatory factor analysis (study 2) of the 20 remaining items corroborated a two-factor uncorrelated model of the TGP/FGA scales. The simplified subscales showed good internal consistency. As expected, higher scores on the TGP/FGA scales were correlated with good life satisfaction, greater control and less depression. Finally, the TGP scale was negatively related to age, but the FGA was not. Conclusion. - The French adaptation of the TGP/FGA scales was shown to possess satisfactory psychometric properties and may therefore be a valuable instrument for researchers and clinicians who are interested in exploring adaptive processes in the maintenance and promotion of personal well-being. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.