Measuring emotion dysregulation in daily life: an experience sampling study

ABSTRACT

Background

Literature underscores the importance of emotion dysregulation in clinical research. However, one critical limitation of the existing investigations in this area involves the lack of psychometrically valid measures for assessing emotion dysregulation in individuals’ daily lives. This study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of momentary versions of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (mDERS) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Positive (mDERS-P).

Methods

Participants were 145 community women (M age = 40.66, 40.7% white) experiencing intimate partner violence and using substances who participated in a baseline interview and then completed surveys three times a day for 30 days.

Results

Analyses supported the reliability of the mDERS and the mDERS-P. The two-state, two-trait model, with separate factors for negative and positive emotion dysregulation at both the within-and between-levels, fit the data best. Momentary negative, but not positive, emotions were positively related to the mDERS; both momentary negative and positive emotions were positively related to the mDERS-P. Baseline trait negative, but not positive, emotion dysregulation, was related to greater variability in momentary negative and positive emotion dysregulation.

Conclusion

Findings advance our understanding and measurement of emotion dysregulation using intensive longitudinal approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion dysregulation
• Positive emotions
• Negative emotions
• Momentary
• State
• Trait

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant K23 DA039327, awarded to the first author (NHW). NHW also acknowledges the support from the Center for Biomedical Research and Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose funded by the National Institute on General Medical Sciences (P20 GM125507). Work on this paper by the fourth author (SRF) was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant F31 AA029274. Work on this paper by the fifth author (MRS) was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant T32DA019426. Work on this paper by the seventh author (RK) was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant F31 AA031164.