The portuguese version of the Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS) in a clinical sample: psychometric properties and measurement invariance across sex

Abstract

The Emotion Regulation of Others and Self Scale (EROS) is commonly used to measure individual differences in the use of strategies to regulate one’s own and other people’s emotions. This study aimed to examine its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across sex in a Portuguese clinical sample. For this purpose, we tested the factorial structure of the EROS in a sample of 390 adults (259 women; Mage = 34.33; SD = 9.99) undergoing active psychotherapy in a private clinic. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor solution proposed by the original authors (intrinsic affect-improving, intrinsic affect-worsening, extrinsic affect-improving and extrinsic affect-worsening) fitted well to our data. Invariance across sex was determined by using multi-group analyses. Additionally, reliability analysis indicated good coefficients for all the dimensions. The pattern of associations of the EROS subscales with dispositional mindfulness, ruminative thinking, psychological inflexibility, emotional intelligence, and psychopathological symptoms were examined. As expected, small to moderate correlations were found evidencing the convergent construct validity of the EROS. Findings suggest that the EROS is a psychometrically sound approach for assessing individual differences in emotion regulation in clinical samples.