1. Introduction
motion is a psychobiological reaction and plays an important role in human adaptation. Functionally, emotion has several positive and negative aspects. These aspects are considered as two factors/structures and supported in numerous studies [
1,
2]. Positive and negative affect categorized as two distinct dimensions of emotional experiences [
3,
4]. Positive affect is a state of pleasant feelings, high energy, high concentration, and pleasurable involvement. Negative affect has a state of unpleasant emotions such anger, sadness, hate, humiliation, guilt and fear [
3,
5]. The relationship of these dimensions with different psychological disorders has already been investigated [
6]. There are various tools for assessing these two emotional dimensions. One of these tools is the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children (PANAS-C) which is a 27-item self-report questionnaire designed by Laurent et al. for measuring the two negative and positive dimensions in children and adolescents. The psychometric properties of this scale has not been evaluated on Iranian population, and Iranian scholars use the adult version of PANAS to measure the positive and negative affect of children and adolescents. Therefore, it is necessary to use a related tool to examine children and adolescents. In this regard, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the develop and validate the Persian version of PANAS-C (original and short form) tested on Iranian school students.
2. Methods
The study population of this cross-sectional study consisted of all male and female students of public elementary and secondary schools in Tehran, Iran in the academic year of 2017-2018. The samples (n=412; 56.8% female) were selected using cluster sampling method. For sampling, first the regions no. 2, 7 and 14 were randomly selected from 22 regions in Tehran. Then, from among the schools in each region, students of the 3rd to 8th grades were selected (40 per school). The data collection tools included PANAS-C, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire For Children And Adolescents (ERQ-CA), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS). Data analysis were performed in SPSS v. 20 using descriptive and inferential statistics (exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and Pearson correlation test).
3. Results
The results of factor analysis showed that all factor loads were above the standard value of 0.3. The first factor was considered positive affect and the second factor was negative affect. These two factors accounted for 51.6% of the total variance. To verify the validity of factor analysis, Cornbrash’s alpha was calculated. The Cornbrash’s alpha for overall PANAS-C was reported 0.85 and for both positive and negative affect factors, it was obtained 0.80 and 0.92, respectively. The internal consistency using Cornbrash’s alpha for PANAS-C-short form (PANAS-C-SF) was reported 0.81, 0.79 and 0.85 for overall, positive and negative affect, respectively. In order to determine the convergent and divergent validity of PANAS-C and PANAS-C-SF, their correlation with ERQ-CA, CDI and SCAS was examined. Results showed that PANAS-C and PANAS-C-SF factors had a significant relationship with emotion regulation, and most of depression and anxiety symptoms (except in obsessive-compulsive and fear of physical harm).
4. Conclusion
The PANAS-C and PANAS-C-SF had good psychometric properties to be used on Iranian children and adolescents. This indicates a favorable adaptation of this scale to Persian language and emphasizes the cross-cultural features of emotion structures.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The present study was designed based on the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Funding
This study was conducted with the support of Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization and investigation: Mozhgan Lotfi and Mahdi Amini; Writing: Yasamin Shiasi; Data acquisition and Analysis: Leila Bahrampoori and Reyhane Fatemitabar; Translation of the scale and interpretation: Behrooz Birashk.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
We want to express our gratitude towards all the study participants without whom conducting this research would not have been possible.
References