Long Dispositional Flow Scale (DFS-2) General: Adaptation to and Validation for Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to adapt the LONG Dispositional Flow Scale-General (DFS-2 General) to Brazilian Portuguese and assess evidence of the instrument's validity. The DFS-2 General is an instrument for measuring flow in general contexts. The study was divided into two phases. The first involved translation and cultural adaptation of the DFS-2. The second entailed conducting an empirical study to assess evidence of construct and convergent validity, as well as internal consistency. The sample consisted of 310 adults (77.4% female) between the ages of 18 and 63 (M = 30.7 SD = 9.2). Based on the parameters of Jackson et al. (2010), we performed confirmatory factor analysis of two models: one with nine first-order factors, and the other with one second-order Flow factor and the same nine first-order factors. A new six-factor model, also with one second-order Flow factor, was proposed. The DFS-2 General presented adequate psychometric properties, indicating its suitability for assessing flow at work within the Brazilian context. The results revealed significant positive correlations between flow and both satisfaction with life and positive affects, as well as a significant negative correlation between flow and negative affects. Significant negative correlations between flow and stress were also found.

Validation and psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese dispositional flow scale 2 (DFS-BR)

“…For the general activities, our study and the study conducted by Correia et al (2020) [26] indicated as an adequate structure a model of nine factors. Although our adapted version of the DFS-2 (DFS-BR) and the adapted version proposed by Correia et al (2020) have slight differences in the translated items, both instruments are well aligned with the flow theory because their construct validity had been proved adequate for nine factor models.…”

“…Although the focus of our study was the former, we also contribute with the latter goal. Many of our translated items were slightly different than the items proposed by Correia et al (2020) [26]. For instance, the original item i25: I am not concerned with how I am presenting myself was translated by Correia et al (2020) as Não me preocupo em como me apresento meanwhile our translation was Não estou preocupado com a forma como estou me apresentando.…”

“…In Brazilian, previous studies conducted with adapted versions of the DFS-2 performed construct validity using models with three [19], six [26], and eight [56] factors. The construct validity in our study had nine factors to measure the individuals' tendency towards the flow state.…”

“…In general terms, the long version of the DSF-2 for general activities is an instrument little explored in the Brazilian context, being the study conducted by Correia et al (in 2020) [26], one of the pioneers to adapt this version and present evidence of validity. In this study, we also conducted the adaptation of the DFS-2 for the Brazilian-Portuguese and validated this instrument, known as DFS-BR, in its long version (with 36 items) and short version (09 items).…”

“…In Brazil, studies to validate the Portuguese-Brazilian version of the DFS-2 were conducted only in few specific domains, such as the work of Freitas et al (2019) [19], and the sport and physical activities [20][21][22][23][24][25]. Only, a recent study conducted by Correia et al (2020) [26] performed the validation of the DFS-2 in the Brazilian-portuguese language for general activities. However, this study did not perform validation of the short version of DFS-2, and only classical validation methods (construct validity and internal consistency) were carried out.…”