Persian Adaptation of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA)

Background and purpose: This preliminary study was conducted for the adaptation and standardization of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA) in a sample of Iranian students. Materials and methods: The current psychometric study was carried out in male and female students in public elementary and secondary schools in Tehran, Iran during 2017-2018 academic year. The samples consisted of 412 participants, including 56.8% females, who were selected using multi-stage clustering sampling. Data were collected using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children (PANAS-C), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS). Data analysis was performed in SPSS V20 applying descriptive and inferential statistics (factor analysis, principal component analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and Pearson correlation). Results: Factor analysis revealed that the ERQ-CA has two factors (reappraisal and suppression). Cronbach's alpha was 0.81 for total items and 0.79 and 0.68 for reappraisal and suppression, respectively. Also, significant correlation coefficients were found for the relationship between reappraisal and suppression with positive and negative affect, anxiety (excluding obsessive-compulsive disorder), and depression subscales (P=0.01, and P=0.05, respectively). Conclusion: The Persian version of ERQ-CA showed reasonably good psychometric properties, therefore, it could be used in clinical and research evaluations of emotion regulation strategies in Iranian children and adolescents.