The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties in General Community Samples

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) is a common tool for assessing emotion regulation strategies.
• Its factorial validity in general community samples, beyond student populations, requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the psychometric properties of the ERQ in Australian general community samples.
• To confirm the factorial validity and reliability of the ERQ in non-student populations.

Main Methods:

• Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on data from three Australian community samples (N=300, 400, 348).
• Internal consistency reliability and correlations with psychological distress and alexithymia were assessed.

Main Results:

• The traditional 2-factor model of the ERQ (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) showed excellent fit and replicability across all samples.
• The ERQ subscales demonstrated acceptable to excellent internal consistency reliability.
• Cognitive reappraisal scores negatively correlated with distress and alexithymia, while expressive suppression scores positively correlated.

Conclusions:

• The ERQ exhibits strong psychometric properties, including factorial validity and reliability, in Australian general community samples.
• The findings support the confident use of the ERQ across both student and non-student populations.
• The ERQ effectively measures cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, correlating as expected with psychological distress and alexithymia.