When do pragmatic abilities peak? APACS-Fr psychometric properties across the life-span

Purpose: This study aims 1) to assess the psychometric properties of the APACS-Fr, a comprehensive test of pragmatic abilities for French speaking adolescents and adults, and 2) to use it to study lifespan variations in pragmatic abilities, to determine when pragmatic abilities peak. Methods: The APACS-Fr was adapted from the original Italian APACS and then used in a cross-sectional design to assess the pragmatic abilities of 184 participants with no known disorder, aged between 14 and 88 years old. The psychometric properties of the test were analyzed from these data and age effects were assessed through LOESS regression and multiple linear regressions. Results: The APACS-Fr was characterized by a good overall internal consistency, a good to excellent inter-rater reliability and a good structural validity with a unifactorial structure. Age analysis revealed that accuracy consistently improves between 14 and approximately 25-30 years old. A decline in performance was also visible in some tasks after 70 years-old. Multiple regressions revealed that SES was an additional supporting factor on most tasks; in contrast, gender never resulted as a relevant predictor of performance. Conclusions: Pragmatic alibies keep improving during late adolescence and early adulthood, before reaching a plateau around 25-30 years old, and they may decline after 70 years old. Taking this pattern into account should make research as well as clinical practice with adolescents and adults more accurate. The APACS-Fr embraces such a life-span perspective. Thanks to its good psychometric properties, this freely distributed tool appears suitable to assess pragmatic abilities in French speaking adolescents and adults.