Psychometric Properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Across Demographic Groups

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is commonly used to assess difficulties recognizing and managing negative affect. Scores on the scale are strongly correlated with measures of psychopathology and are inversely correlated with measures of psychological well-being. Evidence supports the use of the DERS with adolescents and adults; to date, however, few studies have investigated the extent to which the psychometric properties of the DERS are consistent across demographic groups. The overarching goal of the present study was to examine the extent to which the factor structure of the DERS and the reliability and validity of DERS scores are consistent across gender and race in a diverse sample of adults. A total of 1,050 students from a medium-sized, urban university were included in the present study. Participants included 75.6% women and 24.4% men; 42.5% of participants identified as Caucasian, 40.4% as African American, and 17.1% as Asian American. Results showed that the DERS exhibits similar psychometric properties across men and women and all 3 racial groups that were included in this study. As such, the overall scale, as well as the original 6-factor solution of the DERS, can be reliably applied to individuals from the demographic groups investigated in the current study, and results can be interpreted in accordance with those from the preliminary DERS validation sample.