Measurement Invariance of Three Brief Emotion Regulation Questionnaires in People With and Without a History of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

In this study, we investigated the factor structure and measurement invariance of three brief emotion regulation questionnaires in samples of young adults (17-30 years) with and without a history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI: n = 705-836). Results revealed configural, full metric, and full scalar invariance for the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form (DERS-SF) and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire - Short (CERQ-S). In addition, the CERQ-S showed full residual error invariance. In contrast, the proposed factor structure of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was not confirmed in either sample. Further, we observed that some items function differently for people who self-injure and people who do not, which could result in artificial differences being reported in use of cognitive reappraisal. While the current findings offer confidence that observed differences using the DERS-SF and CERQ-S reflect reliable discrepancies in emotion regulation processes between people who self-injure and do not, the validity of statistical inferences using the ERQ could not be ensured and need further psychometric evaluation.