Fit to the rasch model of the FEEL-KJ Spanish adaptation.

Background: In recent decades, scientific production related to Emotional Regulation (ER) has increased significantly. Deficits in ER have been linked to various mental health problems. The aim of this work is to evaluate the Spanish adaptation of the Feel-Kj scale to the RASCH model. Method: Children from 9 to 16 years old took part of this study. One hundred and eighteen children between 9 and 16 years old and one hundred and fifteen from 13 to 16. The 254 participants were attending 25 schools located in de Valencian Community in Spain. Results: Both infit and outfit MNSQ statistics provided evidence for the construct validity of the FEEL-KJ questionnaire. The infit and outfit mean values (1.01 and 1.02, respectively) were close to the perfect fit value of 1. Conclusions: From these results it can be sensed that the FEEL-KJ will be a valid and reliable instrument to apply in the Spanish speaking population, although it is necessary to make some minor adjustments in terms of translation.

Meaning in life as a protective factor against depression.

The main objective of this study was to analyze the mediating role that meaning in life has between emotion dysregulation and depressive symptomatology in Spanish university students. Five hundred and sixty-six Spanish university students participated in the study. All of them completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Purpose in Life Test (PIL-10). A mediation model was performed to test the hypothesis that meaning in life mediates the effect of emotional dysregulation on depressive symptomatology in college students. The results show a positive, moderate, and statistically significant correlation between depression and emotional dysregulation. In addition, a negative, moderate, and statistically significant correlation was found between depression and meaning in life, and a negative, small, and statistically significant correlation between emotional dysregulation and meaning in life. Finally, the results of the mediation model evidence the role of meaning in life in different emotional dysregulation strategies and depressive symptomatology. These findings suggest the importance of incorporating the meaning in life variable in the development and implementation of prevention and treatment programs for psychological disorders.

Effects of Age and Gender in Emotion Regulation of Children and Adolescents.

Emotional regulation, understood as the skills and strategies needed to influence and/or modify the emotional experiences, has a very remarkable implication within numerous emotional and behavioral disorders in childhood and adolescence. In recent years there has been a significant increase in research on emotional regulation, however, the results are still divergent in terms of differences in emotional regulation in relation to age and gender. This study aimed to assess emotional regulation in adolescents in relation to their age and gender. Two hundred and fifty-four adolescents from eight schools in the Valencian Community and aged between 9 and 16 years participated in the study. The adolescents completed the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the FEEL-KJ questionnaire. We analyzed the differences in emotional regulation strategies and a latent emotional regulation variable in two age groups (9-12 years and 13-16 years) and by gender. The results suggested that children and pre-adolescents in the 9-12 year group obtained lower scores in the emotional regulation strategies than the 13-16 year group. Girls reported higher scores on the use of emotional regulation strategies when experiencing sadness, anxiety and anger than boys, and on the overall average of regulation according to these specific emotions. Age, but not gender, had a major effect on scores for the latent variable of emotion regulation. An interaction effect between age and gender was identified in the latent emotion regulation scores. Girls tended to have higher scores than boys when they were younger and lower scores than boys when they were older. These results could be relevant for designing prevention and intervention programs for adolescents and at different ages.