A playful approach to assessing emotion regulation: Development and initial validity evidence for a picture-based test

This study aimed to develop and provide initial validity evidence for the Emotion Regulation Stories Test (THRE), a novel picture-based measure designed to assess emotion regulation through illustrated everyday situations. The test presents short visual stories in which a character faces an emotionally evocative event, followed by multiple illustrated response options representing different levels of regulatory adequacy. A total of 1236 Brazilian adults participated in an online study that also included established self-report measures of emotion regulation, impulsivity, personality traits, and life satisfaction. The THRE demonstrated moderate reliability (α = 0.65) and strong correlations with emotion regulation and impulsivity measures, as well as theoretically consistent associations with both adaptive (e.g., Conscientiousness, Agreeableness) and maladaptive (e.g., Neuroticism, Internalized Distress) personality traits. These findings support the THRE's construct validity and suggest that visual and playful formats can capture emotion regulation processes in a more ecological and engaging manner. The THRE offers a promising complementary approach to traditional questionnaires, with potential applications in clinical, educational, and research contexts. • A new test assesses emotion regulation through illustrated everyday situations. • The THRE showed strong correlations with classical measures of emotion regulation. • Convergent validity was observed with impulsivity and personality traits.