Validity evidence studies of the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale in Brazil

Abstract

Self-efficacy for emotion regulation is understood as the perceived capability to regulate the negative affect and to express the positive ones. This study aimed at the validity evidence for the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale in the Brazilian context through two studies. In the first one, participants were 41 students from middle school (M = 13.49; SD = 1.52), being 58.5 % male. Results indicated a few adjustments in some items. The second study had 932 participants from two cities: one from Southeast Brazil and one from the North. The students were from middle and high schools being 50.3 % (n = 469) female. Their ages ranged from 13 to 23 years old (M = 16.50; SD = 1.52). After analysis through structural equation modeling, results indicated that the dimensions of the scale have a good fit according to the theoretical model with good accuracy indexes, thus confirming the validity evidence for this instrument, being reliable to be used in Brazil.