Measuring chronic regulatory focus with proverbs: The developmental and psychometric properties of a French scale

•A French questionnaire assessing regulatory focus with proverbs is proposed.•Analyses show good psychometric properties of promotion and prevention subscales.•EFA and CFA yielded to a 3-factor model; implications are discussed.•Convergent validity is confirmed; correlations with other measures are consistent.

The purpose of the present research is to design a new self-report questionnaire to assess individuals' orientations toward their goals based on the regulatory focus theory. This theory distinguishes self-regulation with a promotion focus from self-regulation with a prevention focus. Our questionnaire is different from the existing Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) in that our questionnaire enables participants to self-report their actions with items that are proverbs and sayings. Three studies were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire - Proverbs Form (RFQ-PF). The first study involved creating a list of items leading to a preliminary version of the RFQ-PF. In the second study, 343 French participants were surveyed to test the factor structure of the RFQ-PF and to select the final items leading to an 18-item inventory.This tool comprises two reliable subscales: (a) Prevention and (b) Promotion, with adequate internal consistency. Using confirmatory factor analysis, this two-factor structure was discussed in the third study (n = 277). The RFQ-PF's convergent validity was also confirmed. These findings suggest that the RFQ-PF may be useful as a measure of dispositional regulatory focus in self-report models.