◂ Back

Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)

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.

    Contacts

    José Pinto-Gouveia – jpgouveia@fpce.uc.pt

    Alexandra Dinis – alexandra.m.b.dinis@gmail.com