Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist

Abstract

Abstract
Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) is a 24 item parent-report questionnaire that evaluates children’s emotion regulation. The ERC includes two subscales: Emotion Regulation (ER) and Emotional Lability/negativity. This study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the ERC for use in Iran. Using convenient sampling, 352 mothers with at least one child aged between 3 to 6 years were selected from 18 preschools in diverse socio-economic areas of Tehran during 2017. Mothers completed measure of the Emotion Regulation Checklist, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, test-retest reliability and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ERC. The exploratory factor analysis indicated that the most adequate solution is the original two-factor explaining 31.74 % of the variance. The convergent validity was supported by the positive correlations between the Lability/Negativity subscale with mental health problems and disruptive behavior problems. The divergent validity was also supported by the negative correlation between the Emotion Regulation subscale with mental health problems and disruptive behavior problems. These findings provide the evidence of the validity and reliability of the ERC for use in Iran.

Full text

MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE • VOLUME 7, ISSUE 10 187
POPULATION AND COMMUNITY STUDIES
WORLD FAMILY MEDICINE/MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE VOLUME 16 ISSUE 2, FEBRUARY 2018
Fateme Aghaie Meybodi
Parvaneh Mohammadkhani
Abbas Pourshahbaz
Behrooz Dolatshahi
Mohammad Ebrahimzadeh Mousavi
Hadiseh Heydari
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences,
Tehran, Iran
Corresponding author:
Fateme Aghaie Meybodi
University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, kodakyar Ave., daneshjo Blvd.,Evin,
Tehran, Iran
Tel: +98-9128185618
Email: Fateme.aghaie@yahoo.com
Abstract
Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) is a 24 item
parent-report questionnaire that evaluates chil-
dren’s emotion regulation. The ERC includes two
subscales: Emotion Regulation (ER) and Emotional
Lability/negativity. This study aims to investigate the
psychometric properties of the ERC for use in Iran.
Using convenient sampling, 352 mothers with at
least one child aged between 3 to 6 years were se-
lected from 18 preschools in diverse socio-econom-
ic areas of Tehran during 2017. Mothers completed
measure of the Emotion Regulation Checklist, the
Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Eyberg
Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI). Exploratory factor
analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, test-retest reliability and
Pearson correlation coefcient were used to evalu-
ate the psychometric properties of the ERC. The
exploratory factor analysis indicated that the most
adequate solution is the original two-factor explain-
ing 31.74 % of the variance. The convergent validity
was supported by the positive correlations between
the Lability/Negativity subscale with mental health
problems and disruptive behavior problems. The
divergent validity was also supported by the nega-
tive correlation between the Emotion Regulation
subscale with mental health problems and disrup-
tive behavior problems. These ndings provide the
evidence of the validity and reliability of the ERC for
use in Iran.
Key words: Validity and Reliability, Factor analysis,
Emotion.
Please cite this article as:
Fateme Aghaie Meybodi et al.
Psychometric Proper ties of the Persian Version of the Emo-
tion Regulation Checklist.
World Family Medicine. 2018; 16(2): 187-192.
DOI: 10.5742/MEWFM.2018.93260
Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Emotion
Regulation Checklist
Introduction
Emotion regulation is a capability to monitor and modify
emotional experience in order to achieve personal goals
(1). Emotion regulation skills are dependent on emotion
expression and emotional knowledge (2). Emotional
knowledge and emotion regulation skills develop in
preschool years (3). Emotion competence is associated
with pro-social behavior, appropriate response to conicts
and physical health (4). Children should be able to
manage their emotions to develop adaptive functioning
(5). Children with high emotion competence nd more
adaptive ways to communicate their feelings instead of
acting them out (6). The role emotion regulation plays in
developmental psychopathology has been documented
(1, 7-9). Externalizing behaviors such as attention decit
hyperactivity disorder, oppositional deant disorders and
conduct disorders are associated with difculties in emotion
regulation (10).
Measurement is the main challenge in studying children’s
emotion regulation (11). There are different methods for
assessing emotion regulation in children. Observational
methods evaluate how children regulate their emotions
provoked by an emotional story. Analyzing mother-child
interactions, or children’s reaction to emotional photos,
drawing and facial expression is a common observing
method that has been used in research (12). Some
studies have used Interview and tasks including delayed
gratication to investigate emotion regulation construct in
children (13, 14). Self-report methods are used with school-
aged children and adolescents. Researchers studying
preschool children mostly use the hetero-evaluation
method (parents, teacher or other informants) (15).
The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields
&Cicchetti, 1997) is a 24 items questionnaire used for the
hetero-evaluation of emotion regulation in preschool and
school-aged children. The ERC includes two dimensions

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of Emotion Regulation and Emotion Lability/Negativity.
Emotion Regulation describes the child’s emotional
awareness, empathy and constructive emotional
expression. Emotion lability/negativity (L/N) describes
the child’s emotion dysregulation, mood lability, negative
affect and inexibility.
The ERC has been widely used for evaluating emotion
regulation in children. Different translated versions of the
ERC have been cross-culturally adapted in Italy (16),
Turkey (17), China (18) and Brazil (19). As a function of
the ERC’s extensive use, this study aims to evaluate the
validity and reliability of a Persian version of ERC.
Method
Participants
This study was a cross-sectional study using a convenient
sampling. The sample comprised 352 mothers with at
least one child (girl =168, boy=185) aged between 3 to 6
years (M= 4.5; SD= 1.1). Recruitment occurred through
18 preschools in diverse lower- to upper-class socio-
economic regions of Tehran during 2017. Approval was
obtained from the research ethics committee of University
of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences and mothers signed
an informed consent form. Mothers who were interested
in participating in the research completed measures of
the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) (20), the Child
Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (21) and The Eyberg Child
Behavior Inventory (ECBI) (22).
Instruments
The 24-item Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) (20)
measures two aspects of children’s emotion competence:
Emotion Regulation (8 items) and Emotion Lability/
Negativity (15 items). The items are rated on a four
point Likert scale (from 1= almost always to 4= never)
evaluating the frequency of children’s behavior. The
Emotion Regulation subscale describes emotional self-
awareness, appropriate emotional display and empathy.
Emotion Lability/Negativity describes inexibility, reactivity
and mood lability. The ERC has shown a good convergent
and divergent validity (20).
The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (21)
evaluates the mental health of preschool children and
includes three domains: externalizing, internalizing, and
total problems. The CBCL also has a Syndrome scale
including Emotionally Reactive, Anxious/ Depressed,
Somatic Complaints, Withdrawn, Sleep Problems,
Attention Problems and Aggressive Behavior. Higher
scores indicate more mental health problems. The internal
consistency of the Persian version has been shown ranging
from 0.54 to 0.81 (23). In the present study, Cronbach’s
alpha was 0.89 for the externalizing subscale, 0.87 for the
internalizing subscale and 0.91 for the total problems.
The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) (22) is a 36-
item parent-report scale that was used in the present study
to measure disruptive behavior problems in preschool
children. The inventory has two subscales: an Intensity
score, measuring frequency of disruptive behaviors, and a
Problem score, assessing whether (or not) the behavior is a
problem. A higher score indicates more behavior problems.
The test-retest reliability and internal consistency 0.74 and
0.93, respectively was reported in the Iranian population
(24). In this study, Cronbach alpha’s for the Intensity score
and the problem score were 0.92 and 0.91, respectively.
Procedure
First, the English version of the ERC was translated into
Persian by three independent translators. Secondly, a
bilingual psychologist back-translated the Persian version
to English. The back-translation version was approved
equivalent to the original ERC. Three psychology
professors experienced in emotion regulation checked the
translation and some words were changed. The resulting
version was applied to 15 mothers with a primary education
to evaluate problems in the understanding of every item.
Items that were not easily understood were changed to be
more comprehensible.
Data analysis
The main purpose of the current study was to evaluate
the factor structure of the Persian version of the ERC and
its psychometric properties including test-retest reliability,
internal consistency and convergent and divergent validity.
Principal components factor analysis using varimax
rotation was performed to evaluate the factor structure of
the ERC.
Results
The Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin test of sampling adequacy (KMO
=0.83) (25) and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity (x²= 1860
; df = 276; p < .001) (26) suggested the factorability of
correlation matrix. Explorative factor analysis showed that
the two-factor solution explained 31.74 % of the variance.
The 20.50 % of the variance was explained by the rst
factor (Lability/Negativity) and the second factor (Emotion
Regulation) explained 11.24% of the variance.
According to Cattell’s scree plot (See Figure 1) and the
clearness of the item loadings, the two-factor solution was
the best solution.
In contrast to the solution proposed by the Shields and
Cicchetti (20) that item 12 loaded on no factor, this item
loaded on the rst factor (Lability/Negativity) for the Iranian
sample. Items 23 showed positive loading on the rst
factor (Lability/Negativity) instead of the second factor
(Emotion Regulation). As reported by Reis (19) some
mothers interpreted “negative” in item 23 as unfavorable
behavior and interpreted the item in reverse. Therefore,
the item 23 was counted in the rst factor (Lability/
Negativity). Consequently, the relationship between
two factors rose from – 0.31 to -0.42. Cronbach’s alpha
was .81 for the Lability/Negativity factor and 0.57 for the
Emotion Regulation factor. When item 23 moved to the
Lability/Negativity factor, Cronbach’s alpha for the Emotion
Regulation factor became 0.68. The internal consistency
coefcients are in acceptable range for Cronbach’s alpha
(27).

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Table 1. Exploratory Factor Analysis for the Emotion Regulation Checklist
Note. ERC = Emotion Regulation Checklist; EFA = Exploratory Factor Analysis. Lability/ Negativity
= Factor 1; Emotion Regulation = Factor 2.
To evaluate the test-retest reliability of the ERC, 74 mothers completed the checklist at two-weekly intervals.
Test-retest correlations for the Emotion Regulation was 0.84 and for the Lability/ Negativity was 0.68.
The correlation between the ERC, the CBCL and the ECBI scores was evaluated (see Table 2).

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Figure 1: The scree plot for the ERC
Table 2: Convergent and divergent validity of the Emotion Regulation Checklist
Note. * P-value ≤ .05; ** p-value ≤ .01.
The Lability/ Negativity subscale had a signicant and positive relation with all subscales of the CBCL and the ECBI.
The ER subscale has negative relationship with the subscales of the ECBI and all subscales of the CBCL except the
Attention Problems. No correlation between children’s age and gender with the Emotion Regulation or the Emotional
Lability/Negativity were found.

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Discussion
The current study was designed to assess the factor
structure, the reliability and validity of the Persian version
of the ERC. The factor analysis of the Persian version of
the ERC supported the theoretical model proposed by the
authors of the original version (20). Studies investigating
the psychometric properties and the factor structure of the
ERC are limited. These ndings are consistent with the
two-factor model that is proved by previous studies (16,
19, 20, 28, 29).
The Lability/Negativity construct concerns inappropriate
emotion displays, emotional intensity, over reactivity
and emotions dysregulation. Children with high score on
Emotional Lability/Negativity tend to be impulsive and
inexible with low tolerance to frustration and fast shifts
from positive to negative emotions (20). The Emotion
Regulation construct refers to emotional self-awareness,
appropriate emotion expression and empathy. Children
with adequate emotion regulation identify and express
their emotions properly and manage negative emotions in
relation to their goals (20).
As expected, the ERC subscales were associated with
several dimensions of children’s behaviors. Convergent
validity was supported by the positive correlations
between the Lability/Negativity subscale with externalizing
and internalizing disorders, total mental health problems
and disruptive behavior problems. The divergent validity
was also supported by the negative correlation between
the Emotion Regulation subscale with externalizing and
internalizing disorders, total mental health problems and
disruptive behavior problems. Emotion dysregulation is
associated with developmental psychopathology, and has
effects on children’s social interactions (30). Children
internalizing and externalizing problems tend to have more
difculties in emotion regulation (4).
The present study conrms the two-factor structure of the
ERC, offering new evidence supporting the reliability and
validity of the ERC and its usage for the assessment of
children’s emotion regulation in Iran.
Limitations
One of the main limitations of this study concerns sampling.
This study investigated the ERC using convenient sampling
method in a community sample. The non-randomized
sampling limits the generalizability and interpretation of
the ndings. The ndings would be strengthened with
large size of clinical and community samples and using
randomized sampling. All variables were measured
by parent-report questionnaires. Evaluating children’s
emotion and behavior using observational methods would
reduce the expectancy bias.
Conclusion
The present study indicated that the Persian version of the
Emotion Regulation Checklist is explained by two-factor
structure and has an acceptable validity and reliability.
The internal consistency of the Emotion Regulation and
the Lability/Negativity subscales was adequate. This study
provides evidence for using a widely used instrument for
evaluating emotion regulation and dysregulation in Iranian
children.
Acknowledgment
We thank the staff from all preschools for assisting
in recruitment. We also thank all the mothers who
participated in the current study. This research did not
receive any specic grant from funding agencies in the
public, commercial, or not-for prot sectors. This paper is
based on corresponding author’s PhD dissertation. The
dissertation title is “The patterns of mother- child emotional
interaction and the Effectiveness of the Tuning in to Kids
on mothers and Preschoolers with behavior problems” that
has been submitted to Department of Clinical Psychology,
University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science.
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