Age and gender adjusted Brazilian normative reference data for the 16-item version of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16)

Maíra Stivaleti Colombarolli, Fabiano Miguel Koich, Luciano Giromini

Accepted April 30, 2022

First published April 30, 2022

https://doi.org/10.26387/bpa.293.2

Abstract

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is a self-report tool that measures difficulties in regulating emotions that have demonstrated its reliable psychometric properties and clinical relevance in different contexts and cultures. The shorter, 16-item version of DERS has shown similarly sound psychometric properties and validity in measuring emotion dysregulation. However, no study has yet provided normative reference for interpretation of its scores. Accordingly, this study aimed to reproduce Giromini et al.’s (2017) procedures for developing age- and gender-adjusted normative reference data, using a large Brazilian sample. Data from N = 12838 adults from all regions of Brazil were used in the study, with two-thirds of the sample (n = 8531) comprising the development sample, from which we derived the parameters of age- and gender-adjusted t-scores, and the other third of the data (n = 4307) comprising a cross-validation sample. Development of adjusted normative scores that control age and gender effects are provided to be used as parameter for interpreting data from adult assessment, along with its application in an independent nonclinical sample. Normative data are useful in psychological assessment for reliable interpretation of test scores. The present study provides reliable normative parameters for interpretation of scores of emotion dysregulation across Brazilian samples. Future studies should replicate and test whether this approach might be useful in other countries and clinical samples.

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Stivaleti Colombarolli Maíra . Koich Fabiano Miguel . Giromini Luciano . Age and gender adjusted Brazilian normative reference data for the 16-item version of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16). BPA Applied Psychology Bulletin. 2022;293(1):15-26. doi:10.26387/bpa.293.1.

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Age and gender adjusted Brazilian normative reference data for the 16-item version of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16)

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