Emotion Acceptance Questionnaire (EAQ): Factor Analysis and Psychometric Evaluation

Emotion acceptance is defined as the willingness to experience pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Extant research suggests that emotion acceptance-and its converse, emotion nonacceptance or rejection-importantly contributes to experiences of negative affect, symptoms of psychopathology, and physiological markers of emotional responding. However, no validated measurement scale is available in English for assessing emotion acceptance. The current research involved factor analysis and validation of the Emotion Acceptance Questionnaire (EAQ), drawing from items translated from a German scale (FrAGe). In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis (N = 346) revealed four correlated factors: Reject Unpleasant Emotion, Reject Pleasant Emotion, Accept Unpleasant Emotion, and Accept Pleasant Emotion. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis on another sample (N = 413) corroborated the four-factor measurement structure. Internal reliability coefficients of the subscales were satisfactory or higher. Preliminary convergent and discriminant validities were established by examining the extent the four EAQ subscales correlated with previously validated measures of emotion regulation, mindfulness skills, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. This psychometric investigation offers a novel multidimensional instrument to help conceptualize, understand, and facilitate the assessment of emotional acceptance in future research.