Abstract :
[en] Anhedonia, the diminished ability to experience pleasure, is a transdiagnostic symptom in several neuropsychiatric disorders. To comprehensively assess this symptom, the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS) measures interest, motivation, effort, and consummatory pleasure across four reward types. Using three independent samples, we aimed to validate the French version of the DARS and evaluate its psychometric properties across digital (Samples 1 and 2) and paper-based (Sample 3) formats. A total of 1,437 French-speaking participants from the general population completed the DARS alongside measures of anhedonia, depression, and behavioral inhibition/activation. Factor analyses confirmed the four-factor structure of the DARS with excellent model fit indices (CFI≥.962, RMSEA≤.036) and strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=.74–0.93) across both formats. The French DARS showed good convergent validity, with weak-to-moderate correlations with other anhedonia and behavioral activation measures, and strong divergent validity, with weak correlations with depression. Gender differences were found; women scored higher overall, while men scored higher on the hobbies subscale. Measurement invariance analyses supported configural and metric invariance across formats, though full invariance was not achieved due to a lack of scalar invariance.
