Psychometric properties of the French version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (form Y) adapted for older adult

Although there are reports that the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) sh ould be adapted to older adults, the standard version of the instrument is consistently used with this population. Bouchard, Gauthier, Ivers and Parad is (1996) have adapted a French version of the STAI for a population of old er adults and found one item with extremely low item-remainder correlation. In Study 1 (N = 57), alternative formulations of item 24 were assessed to examine if the low item-remainder correlation was related to problems in tr anslation that could become apparent in a sample of older adults. Study 2 ( N = 188) was conducted in order to replicate the findings of Study 1 and as sess the factor structure of the instrument. In Study 3, 46 older adults co mpleted the instrument on two occasions with a 35-day interval to assess te st-retest reliability. Our results suggest that: (a) item 24 should be remo ved from the trait anxiety scale and be replaced by the mean of the other a nxiety-present items; (b) the instrument has a four-factor structure simila r to what is found with the standard version of the STAI in nonelderly samp les; and (c) both subscales are highly stable.