The following is the summary of “Validation of a new emotion regulation self-report questionnaire for children” published in the December 2022 issue of Psychiatry by Junghänel, et al.
This study aimed to analyze and validate the self-report Questionnaire on the Regulation of Unpleasant Moods in Children (FRUST), a shortened and modified version of the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents (FEEL-KJ). The data included both child and parent judgments of a community-screened sample of children with varying degrees of affective dysregulation (AD); N = 391, mean age 10.64, standard deviation 1.33, 56% male). First, to provide a framework for the factors at play, we used latent factor analysis. Next, researchers looked at the age-, gender-, and AD-specific measurement invariance (MI) and evaluated the internal consistency of the scales.
Finally, investigators calculated differential correlations between the emotion regulation strategy (ERS) scales and self-report and parent-report measures of psychopathology to investigate convergent and divergent validity. Their data were best described by a 4 -component model, where 1 item represented Dysfunctional Strategies and the remaining 3 variables represented Functional Strategies (Distraction, Problem-Solving, and Social Support). They discovered moderate MI for AD severity but strong MI for age and gender.
Construct significant differential correlations between child and parent judgments of measures of psychopathology demonstrated validity. They developed a self-report measure that is both valid and reliable for the evaluation of ERS in kids. The FRUST may be an important addition to the evaluation of ER methods for diagnostic, therapeutic, and research purposes because of the small number of items and the inclusion of very specialized regulatory behaviors.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-022-04440-x
