Assessing difficulties in regulating negative and positive emotions: The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Emotion regulation is crucial for psychological well-being.
• Existing measures predominantly focus on negative emotion regulation.
• A need exists for a comprehensive assessment of both positive and negative emotion regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To expand the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to include positive emotion regulation.
• To develop and validate the DERS-Expanded (DERS-X) for assessing both positive and negative emotion dysregulation.
• To examine the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the DERS-X.

Main Methods:

• Development of the DERS-X with items assessing positive and negative emotion regulation.
• Evaluation of the DERS-X in Chinese student and clinical samples (Studies 1 & 2).
• Assessment of factor structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance (Study 3).

Main Results:

• The DERS-X demonstrated a robust factor structure, high internal consistency, and good test-retest reliability.
• The scale showed excellent convergent, discriminant, incremental, and predictive validity.
• Measurement invariance was found across genders, but caution advised for clinical vs. student comparisons.

Conclusions:

• The 33-item DERS-X is a reliable and valid tool for assessing both positive and negative emotion dysregulation.
• The DERS-X has significant clinical implications, linking to depression and anxiety, and informing interventions.
• This expanded scale offers a more comprehensive approach to emotion regulation assessment in diverse settings.