Psychometric Properties of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) on Young Nigerian People

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to validate the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) on Nigerian university undergraduates. A multistage sampling technique was used to purposively select 1338 (mean age ± SD 19.86 ± 2.95) participants made up of 512 (38.3%) male, and 826 (61.7%) were female. Participants were drawn from four selected universities in Osun state, southwestern Nigeria. Participants responded to the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES) Affect Dysregulation Scale. Observed internal consistency of DERS showed a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .90, a Spearman-Brown coefficient of .80 and Guttman Split-Half coefficient of .80. The items that measure awareness of emotion had a weak corrected item-total correlation and did not discriminate well. A significant positive correlation was observed between DERS and SIDES, revealing a correlation coefficient validity score of (r = .622, p = .000). The DERS has acceptable psychometric properties for the Nigerian population. Observed gender-based norms were ≥113.15 and ≥114.07 for male and female respectively. DERS is found to be gender-sensitive. A re-work or expunging of the items measuring awareness to fit with the construct of emotional regulation was recommended.