Background

Positive psychology focuses on enhancing attitudes and behaviors that support well-being, with a key pillar being the use of psychological strengths for optimal functioning. This is linked to positive outcomes such as increased happiness and life satisfaction.

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric validity of the French adaptation of the Strengths Use Scale (SUS), a self-report tool measuring how individuals use their strengths in daily life. The original SUS, developed by Govindji and Linley (2007), has not been thoroughly assessed across languages and cultures.

Method

The French SUS’s psychometric properties were examined using data from six independent French-speaking Canadian samples (N = 1397). After removing cases with missing data, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on a subsample to establish the optimal factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then performed to assess the factor structure’s goodness-of-fit.

Results

Both EFA and CFA supported a unidimensional structure of the scale. The French SUS demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .94). The one-factor model yielded an RMSEA of .122, indicating some model misspecification. However, allowing residuals of some items to covary improved the model fit (RMSEA = .077).

Conclusion

The adapted French SUS exhibits similar properties to the original and presents no new consistency issues. This study contributes to adapting and validating the SUS in French for research and clinical practice. Future research should focus on developing a shorter version by eliminating redundancies and adapting the scale for children to evaluate positive psychology interventions' efficacy in youth.