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

Abstract

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is one of the most widely used instruments in the area of emotion regulation. However, its length is a limitation. Short versions have been proposed in the literature, but their 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 three 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, three out of four versions studied performed well. If researchers wish to obtain a total score, this is justified for DERS-18 and DERS-20 (excluding the “Awareness” items).