Cette étude a pour objectif de mieux comprendre les mécanismes psychologiques et sociaux menant à l'isolement. Elle se situe dans les approches cognitivo-comportementales développées à l'heure actuelle dans le champ de la psychologie de la santé. Plusieurs échelles d'évaluation (sentiment de solitude, soutien social perçu, personnalité, stratégies de coping ) ont été proposées à 45 personnes souffrant de solitude et ayant consulté les Centres Thérapeutiques de Lutte contre l'Isolement « Recherche et Rencontres». Parmi les variables pertinentes, 5 facteurs prédicteurs ont été retenus et expliquent 51 % de la variance du sentiment de solitude : il s'agit du score global de soutien social perçu, des stratégies de coping centrées sur les souhaits imaginaires, des stratégies de coping évitant le recours au soutien social, du trait de personnalité imaginatif et distrait, et du trait de personnalité introversion. Trois prédicteurs contribuent de façon indépendante au modèle : l'absence de recours au soutien social, le recours aux souhaits imaginaires et le trait de personnalité imaginatif-distrait. Nous avons également mis en évidence le rôle médiateur de l'absence de recours au soutien social dans la relation entre le niveau de soutien social perçu et le sentiment de solitude.

The objective of the present study was to explore the psychological and social mechanisms leading to loneliness. Based on cognitive and behavioral approaches developed in health psychology, we tested several models that might allow one to predict certain determinants of the feeling of loneliness. Included in the study were 45individuals suffering from loneliness who had come to one of several Centres Thérapeutiques de Lutte contre l'Isolement « Recherche et Rencontres ». The subjects were asked to respond to four scales : the UCLA loneliness scale, Cattell's 16 PF 5 personality scale, Sherbourne and Stewart's social support scale, and Lazarus and Folkman's Ways of Coping Checklist. The present results confirm the previously reported deficit of social support perceived by subjects in this population. Concerning their personality, this population sample falls outside national norms in 7 dimensions : compared to the general population, the socially isolated individual appears essentially to be introverted and anxious, emotionally unstable, avoiding conflicts, timid and ill at ease in the company of others, imaginative and distracted. To face up to their feeling of loneliness, they have a tendency to use coping styles such as « keep it to yourself » and « wishful thinking ». On the other hand, they resort very little to social support. Among the pertinent variables, 5 predictive factors were recognized, and they could explain 51 % of the variance in the feeling of loneliness : they include the global score of perceived social support, coping strategies focussed around wishful thinking, coping strategies that avoid resort to social support, personality traits of imaginativeness and absent-mindedness, and an introverted personality. Three predictors contributed independently to the model : absence of resort to social support, the use of wishful thinking, and the imaginative – distracted personality trait. We likewise found evidence for a mediator role of the absence of resort to social support in the relation between the levels of perceived social support and the feeling of loneliness. Thus it is not so much the deficit in the subject's social relations that determines his feeling of loneliness as it is his difficulty of appealing to others when in distress. These results suggest that it would be judicious to develop specific therapeutic interventions for this type of person that would permit them to adjust more actively and to behave more realistically.