Capturing Interpersonal Resources for Emotion Regulation: Development and Validation of the External Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

Despite the strong effects of social relationships on psychopathology, interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) is understudied compared to intrapersonal emotion regulation (ER). In particular, external IER (i.e., ER influences received from others within interpersonal interactions) is less understood than internal IER (i.e., intrinsic or self-generated ER that involves other people, such as support-seeking). To fill this gap, we developed the External Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (EERQ) and validated it across four studies.

We generated an initial set of items and conducted an exploratory factor analysis in a sample of 548 adults reporting on IER from their romantic partners (Study 1). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in a sample of 1012 LGBTQ + individuals with romantic partners (Study 2). We further validated the EERQ among 214 single adults (Study 3) and 193 ethnoracially diverse young adults with elevated psychopathology symptoms (Study 4).

The 32-item measure includes five subscales: (1) Problem-solving/Reappraisal, (2) Invalidation, (3) Empathy, (4) Avoidance, and (5) Distraction/Soothing. The EERQ had strong internal consistency (α = 0.71– 0.96) and construct validity across all four studies.

The EERQ showed good psychometric properties among diverse populations, in both clinically elevated and general samples, and with romantic and non-romantic support partners, making it a relationship-specific yet broadly applicable measure of IER. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.