Psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the brief version of the difficulty in emotion regulation scale (DERS-16)

BMC Psychology Fekih-Romdhane et al. BMC Psychology (2023) 11:72 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01117-2 Open Access RESEARCH Psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the brief version of the difficulty in emotion regulation scale (DERS-16) Feten Fekih-Romdhane1,2, Gaelle Kanj3, Sahar Obeid4 and Souheil Hallit5,6,7,8* Abstract Background The current study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the short form of the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16) in an Arabic-speaking population-based adult sample in Lebanon. In particular, the factorial structure, composite reliability, convergent validity and gender invariance were investigated. Methods A total of 411 Lebanese adult participants (mean age of 32.86 ± 11.98 years, 75.4% females) took part of this cross-sectional web-based study. The forward and backward translation method was applied. Results Findings revealed good internal consistency of the Arabic DERS-16 total scale and five subscales (McDonald’s ω ranging from 0.81 to 0.95). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the five-factor solution of the scale and demonstrated strong measurement invariance across gender at the configural, metric, and scalar levels. No significant differences were found in all DERS-16 domains between men and women participants. Finally, the DERS-16 scores and sub-scores showed strong correlations with the Borderline Personality Questionnaire (r > .40), thus indicating its convergent validity. Conclusion Overall, the present findings suggest that the Arabic version of the DERS-16 may be a reliable and valid self-report measure that assesses ER difficulties as a multidimensional construct. Making the Arabic version of the DERS-16 available will hopefully strengthen its utilization for clinical and research purposes to benefit the millions of Arabic-speaking people worldwide. Keywords DERS-16, Short version, Emotion regulation, Arabic, Psychometric properties *Correspondence: Souheil Hallit 1 The Tunisian Center of Early Intervention in Psychosis, Department of Psychiatry “Ibn Omrane”, Razi Hospital, Manouba 2010, Tunisia 2 Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia 3 School of Arts and Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, JouniehP.O. Box 446, Lebanon 4 Social and Education Sciences Department, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Jbeil, Lebanon 5 School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, JouniehP.O. Box 446, Lebanon 6 Psychology Department, College of Humanities, Efat University, Jeddah 21478, Saudi Arabia 7 Applied Science Research Center, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan 8 Research Department, Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross, Jal Eddib, Lebanon © The Author(s) 2023. 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The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Fekih-Romdhane et al. BMC Psychology (2023) 11:72 Introduction Emotion regulation (ER) is a multidimensional concept that can be defined as one’s ability to recognize, assess, respond to, and monitor the expression of their felt emotions, in order to reach their own goals [1–3]. Due to its major clinical relevance, ER has attracted a growing research interest during the last years [4, 5], which was designated to as the “affect revolution” [6]. Indeed, ER provide valuable information on the ways and behaviors that can improve or maintain situational adaptability [7], and lead to greater functioning and psychological wellbeing [5, 8–10]. When deficient, however, ER has consistently been demonstrated to relate to a wide range of negative behavioral and psychological outcomes [9, 11–14], including depression and anxiety disorders [15, 16], posttraumatic stress disorder [17], eating disorders [18], substance use [19], and borderline personality disorder [20–23]. Evidence has also supported the role of ER in the treatment of multiple mental health problems [24–26]. These substantial implications motivated the development of numerous measures to assess the ER construct and its different facets (e.g., [27–32]). Nevertheless, a unified and standardized way to evaluate multidomain aspects of ER across populations is still lacking and strongly needed [13, 33]. One comprehensive, theoretically-supported, and widely used measure of ER difficulties is the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; [34]). The DERS is a 36-item self-report scale that has been originally developed by Gratz and Roemer in 2004 among US undergraduate students; and contains six factors, i.e., lack of emotional clarity, difficulties in goal directed behavior, impulse control difficulties under distress, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and non-acceptance of emotional responses [34]. The scale has then proven to be useful and reliable for clinical and treatment applications [12, 35, 36]. This has therefore encouraged the development of three shorter forms for easier and more convenient use, i.e., a 18-item (DERS-18) [37], a 17-item (DERS-SF) [38] and a 16-item (DERS-16 ) [39] versions. Among these versions, the briefest one (i.e. DERS-16) exhibited the highest item total correlations [40]. In addition, the DERS-16 showed excellent psychometric properties both in clinical and non-clinical samples [39]. In particular, the scale yielded excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.92), good test-retest reliability (ρI = 0.85; p < .001), appropriate construct validity equivalence (as evidenced through correlations with the original 36-item DERS), as well as adequate discriminant validity (as attested by significant correlations of DERS-16 scores with measures of negative emotionality, mindfulness, experiential avoidance, psychiatric symptoms, deliberate self-harm, borderline symptoms, and alcohol use disorder) [39]. When designing the DERS-16, Bjureberg Page 2 of 9 et al. decided to exclude the Awareness factor due to its weak psychometric qualities [36, 41–43], resultin (...truncated)