Spanish adaptation and psychometric properties of the child version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

Abstract

BackgroundThe Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children (CERQ-k) is a useful clinical and research tool to identify cognitive patterns of emotion regulation that predict the presence of emotional symptomatology. This study aimed to validate the Spanish version of the CERQ-k (the CERQ-Sk) using a sample of children from Spain, which is not available.MethodsThe sample consisted of 582 children (48.6% girls) aged between 7 and 12 years (Mage = 9.49; SD = 1.2) recruited from Alicante, Spain. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies, anxiety and depressive symptomatology were self-reported evaluated. Factor structure, internal consistency, temporal stability with the Spanish version for children were examined. Convergent validity was evaluated using Spearman correlations to examine the relationships between the CERQ-k and measures of anxiety (trait anxiety subscale of STAI-C) and depression (CDI).ResultsThe Spanish version of CERQ-Sk had the same nine factors proposed in the original version. Ordinal alpha of the total scale was excellent (.88), and moderate indexes were found for each subscale (.56 to .75). The 8-week test-retest coefficient was adequate for the total scale (ICC = .74) and moderate for the subscales (.54 to .70). Evidence of convergent validity was provided through correlations with the CDI (depression) and trait anxiety subscale of the STAI-C (anxiety). Cognitive strategies such as Rumination, self-blame, catastrophizing, and other-blame were significantly and positively related to depressive and anxiety symptoms. Moreover, positive refocusing and planning seemed to act as strategies that have a positive effect on the prevention of depression in children.ConclusionsResults suggest that the CERQ-Sk is a reliable and valid tool that can be useful for researchers and clinicians to identify maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation patterns that may increase the risk of emotional problems, and orient treatment and prevention of mental health problems in children from Spanish-speaking countries.

Effects of Age and Gender in Emotion Regulation of Children and Adolescents

“…Specifically, the results show that the strategies that present higher scores measured with the CERQ are Refocusing on planning and Putting into perspective, being these adaptive strategies, and those that present lower scores are Other blame and Self blame, which are maladaptive. These results are similar to those observed by Orgilés et al (2018) in a Spanish sample aged 7-12 years, who found that the strategy most used by children and adolescents was Refocusing on planning and the less used Other-blame.…”

“…To evaluate the validity of the translated version of the FEEL-KJ to measure the emotion regulation construct in our study, the scores of the participants in the FEEL-KJ factors have been correlated with the scores in the CERQ dimensions. The CERQ has been validated in the Spanish population (Dominguez-Sanchez et al, 2013;Orgilés et al, 2018), therefore statistically significant correlations among the scores of the FEEL-KJ factors and the scores of the CERQ dimensions in our sample would contribute to support the validity of the FEEL-KJ to measure emotion regulation. The scores in the FEEL-KJ factor of Adaptive Strategies correlated in a positively, statistically significant and moderately manner with the CERQ Adaptive dimension, r = 0.60, p < 0.01.…”

“…The Self-blame strategy is associated with a greater propensity to develop depressive and anxiety symptoms. On the other hand, the Refocusing on Planning and Positive Refocusing strategies may have a positive effect on the prevention of depression (Orgilés et al, 2018). These results support the idea mentioned above that during the stage of 13 to 16, adolescents would present more emotional problems (Zimmermann and Iwanski, 2014) since, as Chaplin and Aldao (2013) point out, maladaptive strategies such as Self-blame are strongly related to depressive symptoms, while adaptive strategies such as Refocusing on Planning are weakly related to such symptoms.…”

“…These results support the idea mentioned above that during the stage of 13 to 16, adolescents would present more emotional problems (Zimmermann and Iwanski, 2014) since, as Chaplin and Aldao (2013) point out, maladaptive strategies such as Self-blame are strongly related to depressive symptoms, while adaptive strategies such as Refocusing on Planning are weakly related to such symptoms. Thus, proposals for intervention and prevention of psychopathology in this age group should focus on reducing or eliminating maladaptive strategies and strengthening and promoting the use of adaptive ones, since, as discussed above, evidence suggests that adaptive strategies can act as a protective factor (Orgilés et al, 2018).…”

“…Focusing on the use of specific emotional regulation strategies, studies show that girls use more adaptive strategies, such as re-evaluation or active coping, and maladaptive ones, such as rumination and suppression (Chaplin and Aldao, 2013). Adaptive strategies are weakly related to depressive symptoms, while maladaptive strategies are strongly related to depressive symptoms (Orgilés et al, 2018).…”