Spanish Validation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): Introducing the ERQ-SpA

Research on emotion regulation is now extensive and shows the benefits of the adaptive management of emotions for social functioning and psychological well-being. Our purpose was to test the psychometric properties of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents with a sample of nonclinical Spanish adolescents. A total of 462 secondary education students (223 girls, mean age = 13.89 years, SD = 1.38) participated. The instrument proved to be two-factor and gender-invariant. Results revealed the temporal stability of both emotion regulation strategies, while the predictive validity study revealed that depressive symptoms were negatively related to cognitive reappraisal, and positively related to expressive suppression. Our findings support the use of the ERQ-SpA in Spanish adolescents