The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance in a Chinese Student Samples

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children and adolescents (ERQ-CA) in Chinese youth (N = 484, M_age = 10.43, SD_age = .88). Three versions (i.e., ERQ-CA-10, ERQ-CA-9, and ERQ-CA-8) of the ERQ-CA were tested and compared using confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance, and correlation analysis. Results showed that the eight-item version of the ERQ-CA (ERQ-CA-8) fit the data best in all conditions. However, measurement invariance across gender and after a one-year retest interval was achieved using all three versions of the measurement. The three ERQ-CA versions exhibited similar patterns of correlates with external measures (i.e., perceived parental marital conflict, r = −.17 to −.20, ps < .001, emotion expression, and callous-unemotional traits, r = −.26 to −.29, p < .001). Furthermore, the ERQ-CA-10 (i.e., the original ERQ-CA) showed better reliability than the other two versions. In conclusion, although further validity studies are needed, our findings suggest that the original ERQ-CA as well as the ERQ-CA-8 both have good psychometric properties and can be used to measure emotion regulation strategies in Chinese youth.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Guangzhou University’s Research Project (YK2020026) Innovation Research for the Postgraduates of Guangzhou University (2020GDJC-M27).