Psychometric Validation and Gender Invariance of the Urdu Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form (DERS-SF) among Young Adults

Emotion dysregulation is an important concept and has been extensively researched. The difficulties in emotion regulation short form (DERS-SF) is a brief tool developed to assess the problems in regulating the emotions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties and to investigate the measurement invariance of the factor structure of the DERS-SF across gender groups. A total of 285 young adults (117 men, and 168 women aged 18 through 29 years) completed the Urdu version of the DERS-SF using a cross-sectional survey design. The findings of the study suggested that both first order and second confirmatory factor analyses were acceptable fit. The findings also showed the invariance of the DERS-SF factor structure between gender across configural, metric and scalar levels of measurement. Results of the current study indicated that the Urdu DERS-SF has acceptable psychometric properties and therefore can be reliably used with Pakistani young adults.