The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor structure and the reliability of the French versions of the Identity Style Inventory (ISI-3) and the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) in a sample of college students (N = 457, 18-25 years old). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized three-factor solution of the ISI-3 identity styles (i.e. informational, normative, and diffuse-avoidant styles), the one-factor solution of the ISI-3 identity commitment, and the three-factor structure of the U-MICS (i.e. commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment). Additionally, theoretically consistent and meaningful associations among the ISI-3, U-MICS, and Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ) confirmed convergent validity. Overall, the results of the present study indicate that the French versions of the ISI-3 and UMICS are useful instruments for assessing identity styles and processes, and provide additional support to the cross-cultural validity of these tools.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the majority of 15-19-year olds follow vocational education programmes within a dual-track system, spending most of their time in a company and going to school only 1 day each week. With their separate aims, content and sociological organisation, the company and the school can be considered as two distinct contexts within which apprentices have to acquire the various skills and competencies of their future occupation. In this paper, the development of apprentices' learning intentions and motivation to learn, subjective competence, perceived utility of what is learned and estimated learning place attractiveness (study 1) as well as their readiness to seek help in these different contexts over the year of training (study 2) is analysed using both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. The findings show significant differences in apprentices' motivation, their beliefs and their readiness to seek help in the different contexts throughout the training. Moderate (cross-different contexts, same time) as well as transcontextual (different contexts, different times) influences can also be seen. These results emphasise the importance of a careful delimitation of contexts when studying the Eur J Psychol Educ (2012) 27:213-225 impact of contextual factors on learners' motivation and behaviours; they also suggest that motivation within one of these contexts can indirectly affect the learner's motivation within another of these contexts. It is therefore likely that, by using these various dynamics appropriately, educators might temporarily sustain learners' motivation in an unappreciated context by having recourse to a better accepted one.

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Teachers’ well-being, including burnout, impacts the stress and well-being of students. Understanding the development of burnout requires not only an examination of stressors, but also a consideration of personality factors. While teachers are subject to many pressures in their profession, they have personalities that make them more or less vulnerable. Our research with 470 secondary school teachers reveals four distinct negative affectivity profiles. Our results show that negative affectivity (tendency to feel depression, anxiety, or stress) plays a role in the development of burnout. However, while teachers with a more anxious profile experience greater emotional exhaustion, those with a depressive profile have more difficulty developing a strong sense of personal accomplishment. The findings highlight the need to take into account the various facets of negative affectivity, particularly in order to be able to propose prevention and intervention approaches adapted to these specific profiles.

The screening of emotional status in nonclinical samples is useful for clarifying the factorial structure of the negative affectivity construct. Several studies using the original version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42) have suggested that its bifactor model predicts that negative emotions encompass a general dimension and distinctive patterns of symptoms. The aims of the present investigation were to enlarge the understanding of the negative affectivity construct by examining the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the French version of DASS-42 using a large sample of young adults. French-speaking participants (N ϭ 1,143) completed the French version of the DASS-42. The confirmatory factor analyses revealed that items shared common higher variance with one general factor and less variance with three specific orthogonal factors. The DASS-42 Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scales reached good reliability and appeared to be better than the scales used to assess convergent validity. All statistics suggested an improved accounting of the data in the bifactor model compared with that of the 3-factor model. Similarly to the original version, the loadings of French items on stress factor showed inconsistencies. Although the 3-factor model of DASS-42 is suitable and recommended for clinical investigations, the bifactor conceptualisation depicts the common and specific symptoms measured with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress subscales. The psychometrics of the French version of the DASS-42 support the bifactor conceptualisation of negative emotions which emphasizes the versatile dimension of stress. Public Significance StatementNegative affectivity is a multidimensional construct that evokes a group of emotional states. In clinical research and practice, self-report questionnaires are widely used to specifically assess different dimensions of the construct without taking into account the overlap of the dimensions. By using a bifactor model, our study showed robust correlations between the general factor and the items of the questionnaire.