The Thai version of difficulties in emotion regulation scale-short form: Validation among undergraduate students

Abstract

Background: Emotion regulation plays an important role in an individual's psychological and social functions. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – Short Form (DERS-SF) has been chosen to investigate its psychometric properties. Objective: To develop the Thai version of the scale and examine construct validity, internal consistency, concurrent validity, criterion-related validity, and floor and ceiling effects of the scale. Design: A cross-sectional survey design Participants: 400 undergraduate students were recruited and completed a self-report online questionnaire including a demographic form, the Thai version of DERS-SF, and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Methods: The Thai version of DERS-SF was developed following the Beaton translation process. Confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson's correlations, and T-test were used. Results: The Thai version of the DERS-SF without Awareness provided a good fit with good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.88). The scale presented a moderate correlation with depression (r = 0.58), anxiety (r = 0.57), and stress (r = 0.67) (all p < 0.05). Students who reported higher scores on the scale tended to experience inadequate income (t-test = 2.82 p < 0.01), mental illness history (t-test = -2.73 p < 0.05), and stressful life-event in the past six months (t-test = -3.95 p < 0.001). Eight items of the scale presented the floor effect while one item had a ceiling effect. Conclusion: The Thai version of the DERS-SF without Awareness exhibited good psychometric properties. The scale would be useful for future research and clinical work to assess emotion regulation among Thai university students.