Validation of the 6-Item de Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale in French and in English

• Main Author: Bourque, Michaela A
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2022
• Subjects: Clinical psychology; COVID-19; Loneliness; Psychology; Social networks; Translation studies; Translations; Web Studies
• ISBN: 9798379862121

The 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS-6) has been previously validated in various languages, including Spanish and formal Chinese. However, some translations, although actively used, have yet to be validated. Although widely used, the English and French versions of this scale have not yet been validated. To validate this scale in both languages, samples were collected from French (N = 640) and English speaking (N= 767) multinational and independent samples in France, Canada, and the United States. The psychometric properties of the French (multinational) (Cronbach's alpha = .66, Item total Correlation (ITC) = .40, Inter Item Correlation (IIC) = .24, rs = .64) and English (multinational) (Cronbach's alpha = .72, ITC = .45, IIC = .28, rs = .72) translations of the DJGLS-6 were found to be acceptable at both the multinational and independent national levels. However, at the subscale level, the psychometrics of the emotional loneliness subscale were suboptimal in both languages compared to those of the social loneliness subscale. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed a good fit according to the standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) (=.02) and comparative fit index (CFI) (=.95) at the French multinational level. Similar results were obtained for the English multinational sample. Overall, these results indicate that the French and English translations of the DJGLS-6 are reliable and valid measures and may be used confidently, although the emotional loneliness subscale should be used with caution when considered independently