Validation of a French version of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised

Objective: This report presents a French translation and validation of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) in a population of women exposed to a natural disaster during or preceding pregnancy. Method: A total of 223 francophone women who were either pregnant at the time of the 1998 ice storm or who became pregnant shortly thereafter completed the IES-R and other questionnaires 6 months after the disaster. Results: The French IES-R has good internal consistency, with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.81 to 0.93 for its 3 subscales and total score. The test-retest reliability of the scale, although examined with another sample, proved to be satisfactory, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.71 to 0.76 for its 3 subscales and total score. Its convergent validity with perceived life threat and general psychiatric symptoms was judged to be marginally acceptable. Finally, a principal components analysis was conducted and a 3-factor solution, which explained 56% of the variance, was retained: a hyperarousal factor (7 items), an avoidance factor (6 items), and an intrusion factor (6 items). Conclusions: The French version of the IES-R has satisfactory internal validity and test-retest reliability. Further, the factor structure of the translation was similar to the proposed theoretical structure of the IES-R.