Journal: Journal of Projective Psychology and Mental Health (2022) Vol. 29: 87-96
Title: Development and Initial Examination of a Measure of Emotion Regulation Knowledge
Authors: Adam P. Natoli and Julie F. Brown
Abstract:
Many effective therapies targeting dysregulation employ psychoeducational and skills training interventions, both of which presumably increase a person’s accessible knowledge of processes that potentially facilitate or hinder emotion regulation processes, how different skills can help regulate emotional experiences, at what point emotion regulation strategies should be used, and which emotion regulation strategy would be ideal given the context (i.e., emotion regulation knowledge). Thus, emotion regulation knowledge may play an important role in emotion regulation functioning. Based on a review of literature, no current available measure directly assesses emotion regulation knowledge. The aim of the current study was to develop such an instrument. Development and initial validation of the Emotion Regulation Knowledge Scale (ERKS) occurred over two measurement development phases and a subsequent validation phase using two diverse samples. A pool of 77 items was developed and then reduced based on expert appraisals of each item. Exploratory structural equation modeling was used to identify an optimal factor structure of the ERKS and then, using a second sample, confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test whether the identified model would be confirmed. Initial construct validity of the ERKS was then assessed using a latent variable approach. Exploratory structural equation modeling supported a good internal consistency and produced theoretically consistent correlations with measures of psychological distress and emotional dysregulation. The presented findings, combined with the potential utility of the ERKS in research and clinical settings, support early confidence that the ERKS is an internally reliable and valid measure of emotion regulation knowledge. However, future confirmatory research is necessary to support this claim.