Validation of the FEEL-KJ: An Instrument to Measure Emotion Regulation Strategies in Children and Adolescents.

Emiel Cracco,Kim Van Durme,Caroline Braet,Jelte M Wicherts

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0137080

Emiel Cracco, Kim Van Durme + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137080

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Sep 2, 2015
Citations: 103	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Ghent University

Abstract

Although the field of emotion regulation in children and adolescents is growing, there is need for age-adjusted measures that assess a large variety of strategies. An interesting instrument in this respect is the FEEL-KJ because it measures 7 adaptive and 5 maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in response to three different emotions. However, the FEEL-KJ has not yet been validated extensively. Therefore, the current study aims to test the internal structure and validity of the FEEL-KJ in a large sample of Dutch-speaking Belgian children and adolescents (N = 1102, 8–18 years old). The investigation of the internal structure confirms earlier reports of a two-factor structure with Adaptive and Maladaptive Emotion Regulation as overarching categories. However, it also suggests that the two-factor model is more complex than what was previously assumed. The evaluation of the FEEL-KJ validity furthermore provides evidence for its construct and external validity. In sum, the current study confirms that the FEEL-KJ is a valuable and reliable measure of emotion regulation strategies in children and adolescents.

Highlights

Emotion Regulation in Children and AdolescentsNegative situations are often accompanied by feelings of anxiety, sadness, or anger
The field of emotion regulation research in children and adolescents is growing, there is need for adequate instruments that cover a wide range of emotion regulation strategies
We evaluated the internal structure, reliability, and validity of the FEEL-KJ as an instrument to measure emotion regulation strategies in children and adolescents

Summary

Introduction

Negative situations are often accompanied by feelings of anxiety, sadness, or anger These feelings are in turn at the center of many psychiatric disorders [1]. According to functionalist perspectives on emotion, both positive and negative emotions are essential for human survival and should be seen as important to regulate behavior [2,3,4,5]. From this perspective, it is not the experience of negative emotions, but the inefficient regulation of these emotions that is at the basis of psychiatric symptoms [6]. Emotion regulation strategies generally target negative emotions [8]

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