Psychometric Properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Brief Form (Ders-16): in Group of Iranian Adolescents

Given the importance of the scale of difficulty in emotion regulation, in measuring the ability to regulate emotion in adolescents and adults, which is widely used in research and clinical settings, the purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of short form of difficulty in emotion regulation (DERS-16) in group of Iranian adolescents.

The method of  the present study was a survey in which the statistical population consisted of all 16 to 18 years old male secondary school students in Ardabil City in the 2019-2020 academic year (N = 21756). Among which 409 individuals were selected by cluster random sampling and individually responded to the DERS-16 & NEO-FF-R. To analyze the data internal consistency coefficient, divergent validity and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16  and LISREL 8.8 software.

The results of internal coefficient showed that this scale had a good reliability. Fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis also showed appropriate scale validity (CFI = 0.99, RFI = 0.98, NNFI = 0.99, and RMSEA = 0.048).

Findings indicate that the Persian version of this scale is a good tool for measuring the difficulty in regulating emotion and can be used to assess the difficulty in regulating emotion in adolescents and adults.