French translation of the Flow State Scale-2: Factor structure, cross-cultural invariance, and associations with goal attainment

Abstract : Objectives: The goal of this paper was to assess the cross-cultural invariance of the factor structure of the French and English versions of the Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2) [Jackson, S. A., & Eklund, R. C. (2002). Assessing flow in physical activity: The Flow State Scale-2 and Dispositional Flow State Scale-2. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 24, 133–115] and to assess the relationships between athletes' flow state and perceived goal attainment. Design: Cross-sectional with self-reported questionnaires. Method: Two samples of sport participants completed the FSS-2 immediately after an event and within a few days after the event, respectively. Data were analyzed with reliability and confirmatory factor analyses as well as with correlational and regression analyses. Results: Results of confirmatory factor analyses on the French FSS-2 replicated the factor structure of the original FSS-2 with the first-order 9-factor and the hierarchical models both displaying adequate level of goodness-of-fit. Results of multi-sample analyses indicated that most parameters of the FSS-2 were invariant across languages. As expected, flow state correlated significantly with goal attainment during a sport competition. The relationship between flow and goal attainment was invariant across levels of competition. Conclusions: This study provided support for the factor structure of the French version of the FSS-2 and for the invariance of the flow construct across languages. Flow state is significantly associated with goal attainment and the relationship is equivalent across athletes' levels of competition.