Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 39, Issue 2, June 2008, Pages 107-116
Behavior Therapy

The Emotion Reactivity Scale: Development, Evaluation, and Relation to Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2007.05.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Prior research has examined the relations between various facets of emotion and psychopathology, with a great deal of recent work highlighting the importance of emotion regulation strategies. Much less attention has been given to the examination of emotion reactivity. This study reports on the development and evaluation of the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), a 21-item self-report measure of emotion sensitivity, intensity, and persistence, among a sample of 87 adolescents and young adults. Factor analysis revealed a single factor of emotion reactivity best characterized the data. The ERS showed strong internal consistency (α = .94), convergent and divergent validity via relations with behavioral inhibition/activation and temperament, and criterion-related validity as measured by associations with specific types of psychopathology and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITB). Moreover, emotion reactivity statistically mediated the relation between psychopathology and SITB. These findings provide preliminary support for the ERS and suggest that increased emotion reactivity may help explain the association between psychopathology and SITB.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 94 (73 female) adolescents and young adults (age in years: M = 17.14, SD = 1.88, range 12-19) were recruited from the community and local psychiatric clinics for participation in a laboratory-based, case-control study of SITB. All participants received a description of the study aims and procedures and provided written informed consent to participate in the research, with parental consent required for those less than 18 years of age. Seven participants failed to complete all of the study

Factor structure and reliability

Our first goal was to examine the factor structure and internal consistency of the ERS. We used exploratory analyses to examine the internal structure of the ERS rather than confirmatory analyses given that this was the first evaluation of this measure and we wanted to flexibly consider the model that best fit with the data. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the ERS items and applied an oblique (direct oblimin) rotation given we did not

Discussion

Emotion reactivity is an important construct in the study of psychopathology; however, to date no existing measures have provided a comprehensive assessment of the subjective experience of emotion reactivity. We developed and examined a new measure called the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), demonstrated the reliability and validity of the ERS, and further elucidated the relations between emotion reactivity, psychopathology, and SITB. Several aspects of our findings warrant detailed comment.

The

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Julie Gold and other members of the Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental Research at Harvard University for their help with this work. This research was supported by generous grants from the William F. Milton Fund and William A. Talley Fund of Harvard University and with partial support from National Institute of Mental Health (1R03MH076047-01).

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