L’objectif de ce travail a été de réaliser une étude préliminaire de validation de la version française d’un questionnaire de répression émotionnelle (Weinberger Adjustment Inventory [WAI], 1989). Ses relations ont été explorées avec des évaluations de l’anxiété, de la dépression et de l’alexithymie.

Cent cinquante-neuf sujets issus de la population générale ont rempli le questionnaire traduit en français puis rétrotraduit.

En analyse factorielle en composantes principales, la solution à trois facteurs représentant 33,2 % de la variance totale reflète au mieux la structure interne du questionnaire, avec une composante de « Détresse », une autre de « Maîtrise de soi » excluant la dimension de « Considération pour autrui », qui constitue le troisième facteur, résultats semblables à ceux retrouvés dans la littérature. La validité convergente du WAI avec les évaluations de l’anxiété et de la dépression fournit des résultats satisfaisants. Les individus utilisant le plus la répression émotionnelle auto-évaluent leurs affects dépressifs ou anxieux comme faibles, ce qui est conforme à la définition des fonctions de ce mécanisme. L’utilisation de cet outil devrait permettre d’approfondir la question de l’implication de la répression dans l’alexithymie et poursuivre les recherches sur leurs liens complexes à la dépression.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.