An Item Response Theory examination of the original and short forms of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) in pregnant women.

Abstract

Emotion dysregulation during pregnancy may impede women's capacity to navigate increased stressors during this period and may elevate risk for psychosocial impairment, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged or racially marginalized women. Valid and efficient assessment of emotion dysregulation is needed. We used Item Response Theory (IRT) to examine the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) in 248 low income, primarily Latina/x pregnant women, to compare the short forms relative to the full DERS. IRT indicated that the short forms exhibited modest reliability, but also indicated a substantial decrease in information (i.e., reliability) for the short forms compared with the full DERS. IRT indicated that the DERS-16 appeared more reliable (conserve more information) relative to the other short forms, the DERS-SF and DERS-18. Findings suggest that clinicians and researchers use the full DERS when time permits and the DERS-16 when needing a briefer version.