Psychometric properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale in a sample of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder patients from Psychotrauma Center Zuid Nederland.

Abstract

Abstract: In the Netherlands, the 12-month prevalence of individuals suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) is estimated at 1.2%. Treatments for this disorder vary in their efficacy and often are subject to high dropout and nonresponse rates. Therefore, more research is needed to provide knowledge about underlying mechanisms and treatment. A line of research which may provide more insight is that on the relationship between Emotion Regulation(ER) and PTSD. A regularly used way of measuring emotion regulation problems is a self-report questionnaire named the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). However, research on the psychometric properties of this scale in a clinical sample are rare, and more specifically, nonexistent in a PTSD patient sample. The main goal of the current study was to assess psychometric properties of the DERS in a sample PTSD patients (n=281), existing of Dutch natives, veterans and refugees from a variety of countries. The DERS showed excellent internal consistency and reliability. Only the awareness subscale showed bad internal consistency. Results of exploratory factor analysis(EFA) showed that the number of factors were equal to the original structure found by the inventors, but the robustness of the factor structure was weak: not all items loaded on the same factors. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the original six-factor structure and a six-factor structure based on the EFA were a good fit to the data. A five-factor model without the awareness subscale showed the best fit to the data. Lastly, results suggested that the DERS was not able to discriminate between present and absent ER problems. These results implied that the DERS measures a robust construct in a PTSD sample. However, it is advised that more research is conducted on the DERS without the awareness subscale before the scale is used for PTSD patients.