Positive and negative affective states in a performance-related setting - Testing the factorial structure of the PANAS across two samples of French-Canadian participants

The objective of the present study was to compare alternative factorial structures of the French-Canadian version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) across samples of athletes at different stages of a sport competition. The first sample (N = 305) was used to assess, compare, and improve the measurement model of the PANAS. The second sample (N = 217) was used to cross-validate the model that provided the best fit with the calibration sample. Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a modified three-factor model with cross-loadings provided a better fit to the data than either the hypothesized or the modified two-factor models. This model was partially replicated on the second sample. Results of a multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis have shown that the model was partially invariant across the two samples.