/  Assessment Tools

Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale

(DERS)

Research Group
CBPI
Contacts José Augusto da Veiga Pinto de Gouveia Alexandra Margarida Borges Dinis

TITLE OF THE PORTUGUESE VERSION

Escala de Dificuldades na Regulação Emocional

ORIGINAL VERSION

Gratz, K.L., & Roemer, L. (2004)

PORTUGUESE VERSION

Veloso, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Dinis, A. (2011)

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The DERS was developed to assess difficulties within the following dimensions of emotion regulation: (1) awareness and understanding of emotions; (2) acceptance of emotions; (3) the ability to engage in goal-directed behavior, and refrain from impulsive behavior, when experiencing negative emotions; and (4) access to emotion regulation strategies perceived as effective. The scale consists of 36-items which statements should be rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). The scale is composed by 6 dimensions:

  • Nonacceptance of emotional responses: 11, 12, 21, 23, 25, 29;
  • Difficulty engaging in Goal-directed behaviour: 13, 18, 20R, 26, 33;
  • Impulse control difficulties: 3, 14, 19, 24R, 27, 32;
  • Lack of emotional awareness: 2R, 6R, 8R, 10R, 17R, 34R;
  • Limited access to emotion regulation strategies: 15, 16, 22R, 28, 30, 31, 35, 36;
  • Lack of emotional clarity: 1R, 4, 5, 7R, 9 (R= Reverse-scored items).

After recoding the inverse items it is possible to obtain a total score (adding all the 36 items) or a score for each subscale. Higher scores indicated greater difficulties in emotion regulation. The Portuguese version of DERS showed a good level of internal consistency for the total scale, an adequate temporal stability for all subscales and good convergent and discriminant validities.

REFERENCES

  • Gratz, K.L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional Assessment of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation: Development, Factor Structure, and Initial Validation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41-54.

  • Veloso, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Dinis, A. (2011). Estudos de validação com a versão portuguesa da Escala de Dificuldades na Regulação Emocional (EDRE). Psychologica, 54, 87-110.