Factor structure and measurement invariance of the difficulties Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) in Spanish adolescents

Background: Emotion dysregulation is a unifying dimension of several psychopathological symptoms such as prolonged dysphoria, labile mood, high anger, persistent fear and excessive worry. Deficits in emotion regulation (ER), or emotion dysregulation, appear to be relevant to the development, maintenance, and promising treatment target in a broad range of mental disorders. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is the most comprehensive measure of emotion dysregulation to date, but the Spanish version has not been validated in adolescents. Method: A community sample of 642 Spanish adolescents aged 12-18 responded to the DERS. Results: Factor analysis suggested a six-factor solution, and strict measurement invariance across sex was achieved. Internal consistency for the subscales was moderate to satisfactory (.71-.88), except for Awareness (α =.62). We found some sex differences on subscale scores, with small effect sizes. Conclusions: The results obtained for the Spanish version of the DERS are promising for investigating emotion dysregulation in Spanish adolescents. © 2014 Psicothema.