How Well Does the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Measure Emotion Dysregulation Beyond Psychopathology? A Scoping Review and Synthesis of its Construct Validity

Emotion dysregulation is broadly conceptualized as both disturbances in emotional experiences and emotion regulation. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) was developed as a measure of disrupted emotion regulation but is often used to assess emotion dysregulation more broadly, raising concerns about its validity. Moreover, many studies conflate criterion validity of the DERS with its construct validity. This study aims to estimate and distinguish evidence for DERS criterion and construct validity. In a scoping review of 381 publications from 2004 to 2014, we extracted relationships between the DERS total and 10 dimensions of psychopathology symptoms to assess criterion validity and 10 dimensions of emotion dysregulation to assess construct validity. Relationships with DERS subscales were also extracted. Meta-analytic summaries demonstrated that DERS total showed significant associations with nearly all dimensions of symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma) and emotion dysregulation dimensions (e.g., distress tolerance, experiential avoidance, mindfulness) examined. Subscale findings were similar for symptom dimensions, with more variability and fewer significant effects for emotion dysregulation dimensions. Overall, we found strong evidence for DERS criterion validity and good evidence of construct validity through associations with several dimensions related to disrupted emotion regulation. Finally, we found evidence that the DERS may also measure disruptions in emotional experience not covered in its original model. More refining of emotion dysregulation as a construct is needed to ensure accurate measurement and valid research conclusions. Future research should examine relationships between DERS subscales and additional emotion dysregulation dimensions for convergent findings.