L'Échelle de Solitude Sociale et Émotionnelle (ÉSSÉ): A French-Canadian adaptation of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults

Although there exist many psychological measures in the English language, few of these clinical and research instruments have been translated into French and subsequently validated. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate L'Échelle de Solitude Sociale et Émotionnelle (l'ÉSSÉ). L'ÉSSÉ is a French translation of the short form of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA-S; DiTommaso, Brannen, and Best, 2004; DiTommaso and Spinner, 1993). The SELSA is a multidimensional scale which measures the social and emotional components derived from Weiss' (1973) typology of loneliness. A total of 252 French-speaking individuals, aged between 17 and 79 years, completed the new measure. Reliability and validity assessment indicated that l'ÉSSÉ displays excellent psychometric properties.