Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Paget, V
• Consoli, S M
• Carton, S

Titel

French translation and validation of the Weinberger Repression Questionnaire

Ist Teil von

• Annales médico psychologiques, 2010-10, Vol.168 (8), p.593-601

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In a cognitive perspective, repression is defined as a coping strategy whose objective is to extinguish awareness of subjective emotional experience, leading to restriction of subjective experience. It is characterized by avoidance of threatening and distressing information, minimization of negative affects and low tendency to anxiety. Several measures of repressive coping style have been developed and the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI) appears to be the most psychometrically sound measure of repression. Objectives: The main aim of this study was to translate and validate a French version of the WAI in non-clinical individuals on general population. The secondary objectives were to investigate its relationship to independent measures of anxiety, depression and alexithymia. Materials and methods: Subjects (n = 159) were asked to complete the WAI questionnaire. A principal component analysis was carried out. The internal consistency was measured by the Cronbach alpha coefficients, and discriminant validity was assessed by examining correlations between the scales of the WAI. Because there is no other French validated instrument assessing repression, convergent validity was studied with alexithymia (Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire), anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale). Results: Our factorial structure of the French WAI resembles the Weinberger's one. The "Consideration for Others" subscale does not belong to the Self-Restraint dimension: this is consistent with literature findings. The others results show solid metrological properties. Cronbach alpha reliabilities for principal and secondary factors were ranged from 0.80 to 0.93 (from 0.65 to 0.85 for the subscales) and the intercorrelations were low. Correlations were found between the WAI, the HAD and the Bvaq-b. Anxiety and Depression (HAD) are positively correlated to Distress and negatively correlated to Restraint, Defensiveness and Composite score. The repressive style, characterized by high scores on Defensiveness and Composite score, is positively correlated to affective component of alexithymia and negatively correlated to the cognitive score of alexithymia. Conclusion: Globally, findings replicate earlier findings obtained in the Anglo-American context. The French version of the WAI thus appears to be valid and will help studying repression in France, especially in its complex relationships to alexithymia.