Emotional style questionnaire in the french cultural context: test-retest reliability and invariance across time, gender and age, in students and teaching staff from health and social care training institutes

Emotional style (ES) should guide psychological interventions to reduce emotional exhaustion, which is prevalent among nursing students and teaching staff in France. This study aims to examine Emotional style questionnaire (ESQ-24) in nursing students and teaching staff in France, in terms of: Test-retest reliability, invariance across time, age groups and gender groups, and the main effects of gender and age on ES. Among the 723 participants who completed the ESQ-24 initially, 83 completed it a second time after four weeks (n = 83) online. Confirmatory factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were performed. The ICC was greater than 0.7 per item; no significant differences in the fit indices with regard to configural, metric, and scalar invariance across time for each subscale, and across age groups (under median age versus over) and gender groups for the full ESQ-24. Gender and age exhibited a significant effect on four and on all six emotional profiles, respectively. ESQ-24 may be considered stable over four weeks and between age and gender groups in nursing students and teaching staff in France. In view of implementing psychological intervention based on ES, men and women should be considered differently in this context.