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Assessment

(PS4-7) Development of a Revised Interpretive Model of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) Based on Hierarchical Factor Analyses

Friday, November 15, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: With empirical evidence suggesting that emotion regulation likely has a central role in transdiagnostic approaches to psychopathology and psychological treatments, it is imperative that care is taken with respect to the measurement of this construct. The commonly used Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) was comprised of six distinct factors (Hallion et al., 2018). To date, researchers have speculated about the construct validity of the originally proposed six scales of the DERS (Fowler et al., 2014; Giromini et al., 2012). These questions have led the authors of this presentation to recommend a revised interpretation of the existing DERS measure, to represent the scale more accurately. Using a sample of 360 college students (ages 18 to 26; 51% White, 21% Hispanic or Latinx, 14% Black or African American, 6% Asian, and 4% preferred not to answer; 81% females, 18% males, and 1% gender non-conforming) an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the original DERS items suggests that the scale is better explained using four factors, as evidenced by eigenvalues over 1 (Kaiser’s rule) for only four of the six original factors. The authors completed a second EFA with four factors and found similar results, with a four-factor design accounting for 54.30% of the variance. Exploration of factor loadings for a four-factor design revealed that seven items in the original DERS did not significantly load (with significance determined by an item loading > .5) onto any of the factors and were eliminated from the revised scale. High inter-factor correlations ranging from .27 to .66 were found, indicating high levels of shared variance among the factors. Thus, a higher-order factor analysis was performed, which suggested that the DERS is best seen as consisting of a single higher-order factor (emotion dysregulation) and 4 subscales, X2(2) = 14.50, p = .001. The factor labels used in the original DERS do not precisely reflect the individual items, comprehensively. Based on the data, more accurate labels for the DERS subscales are proposed: 1) helplessness when experiencing emotion; 2) disrupted executive function when experiencing emotion; 3) self-deprecation when experiencing emotion; and 4) emotional awareness. In conclusion, this work asserts that the original six factors posited to encompass difficulties in emotion regulation in the DERS are more accurately explained as one factor and four subscales. Considering the significant implication of emotion dysregulation in both diagnostic and treatment settings, this new DERS interpretive model aims to enhance the precision and effectiveness with which difficulties in emotion regulation are measured and understood.