Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale: A psychometric analysis of its brief versions

The Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) is one of the most widely used instruments in the area of emotional regulation. However, its length is a limitation. Short versions have been proposed in the literature, but its psychometric performance has been little studied in young Latin Amer...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Blancas-Guillen, Jesus, Arroyo-Pizarro, Pedro, Quintana, Edson, Tupa-Belizario, Rosa S., Valencia, Pablo D.
Format: Online
Language:spa
Published: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba 2024
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Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/racc/article/view/36158
Description
Summary:The Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS) is one of the most widely used instruments in the area of emotional regulation. However, its length is a limitation. Short versions have been proposed in the literature, but its psychometric performance has been little studied in young Latin American adults. The present study examined the internal structure of these short versions in 345 Peruvian university students (mean age = 22.45; 68.7% female). It was found that all short versions presented good fit in the confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, bifactor models based on these versions were tested, of which only those derived from DERS-18 and DERS-20 presented interpretable solutions. In both cases, evidence of essential unidimensionality was found. In conclusion, all four versions studied perform well. If researchers wish to obtain a total score, this is justified for DERS-18 and DERS-20 (excluding the “Awareness” items).