Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 47, Issue 3, May 2016, Pages 299-311
Behavior Therapy

Self-Reported Emotion Reactivity Among Early-Adolescent Girls: Evidence for Convergent and Discriminant Validity in an Urban Community Sample

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2016.01.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This study examined self-reported emotion reactivity (ER) among adolescent girls.

  • ER was correlated with internalizing symptoms and poor coping (convergent validity).

  • ER was linked to reactive, but not proactive, aggression (discriminant validity).

  • ER was linked to suicidal ideation but not early substance use (discriminant validity).

  • Findings support the construct validity of the Emotion Reactivity Scale.

Abstract

Emotion reactivity, measured via the self-report Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), has shown unique associations with different forms of psychopathology and suicidal thoughts and behaviors; however, this limited body of research has been conducted among adults and older adolescents of predominantly White/European ethnic backgrounds. The present study investigated the validity of ERS scores for measuring emotion reactivity among an urban community sample of middle-school-age girls. Participants (N = 93, ages 11–15, 76% African-American, 18% Latina) completed the ERS and measures of emotion coping, internalizing problems, proactive and reactive aggression, negative life events, and lifetime suicidal ideation and substance use. As hypothesized, ERS scores were significantly associated with internalizing problems, poor emotion coping, negative life events, reactive aggression, and suicidal ideation (evidence for convergent validity), but showed little to no association with proactive aggression or lifetime substance use (evidence for discriminant validity). A series of logistic regressions were conducted to further explore the associations among internalizing problems, emotion reactivity, and suicidal ideation. With depressive symptoms included in the model, emotion reactivity was no longer uniquely predictive of lifetime suicidal ideation, nor did it serve as a moderator of other associations. In conjunction with previous research, these findings offer further support for the construct validity and research utility of the ERS as a self-report measure of emotion reactivity in adolescents.

Section snippets

Emotion Reactivity

Emotion regulation theory has become increasingly influential in developmental psychopathology and clinical child and adolescent psychology in recent years, yielding specific and transdiagnostic implications for the assessment and treatment of psychological problems in youth (Cole and Hall, 2008, Southam-Gerow and Kendall, 2002). Broadly defined, emotion regulation refers to the ongoing process through which one’s affective state is continually modulated. As such, emotion regulation and

Participants and procedures

Study data were collected as part of a program evaluation of a 6-week summer day camp for middle-school-age adolescents at two sites in a large urban midwestern city. The camp seeks to enroll at-risk youth, free of charge, and utilizes performing arts training and personal development classes to help improve self-esteem, confidence, and resiliency. The program evaluation is conducted as part of an ongoing university-community partnership, intended to (a) provide feedback and recommendations to

Evidence for convergent validity

Means, standard deviations, correlations, and distributional characteristics (range, skewness, and kurtosis) for all variables are presented in Table 1. Emotion reactivity showed significant zero-order correlations with nearly all other variables in a direction consistent with hypotheses. With regard to convergent validity, emotion reactivity was positively associated with internalizing problems, both generally and specifically with depression, anxiety, and social stress. Emotion reactivity was

Discussion

This study examined several correlates of self-reported emotion reactivity measured via the ERS. Using data drawn from an urban community sample of predominantly African-American, early-adolescent girls, these findings corroborate and extend upon previous research in several ways. First, the convergent validity of ERS scores is supported by positive associations with internalizing problems (depression, anxiety, and social stress), poor emotion coping, negative life events, reactive aggression,

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Portions of this research were completed with support from the American Psychological Foundation (Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Child Psychology Graduate Student Fellowship) and the University of Kansas (Lillan Jacobey Baur Early Childhood Fellowship) awarded to the first author.

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