Overview
Adapted from Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the ERQ-CA is designed to assess individual differences in the habitual use of two emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Reappraisal is defined as the attempt to alter the meaning and emotional impact of a situation, and suppression, the attempt to inhibit or reduce emotion-expressive behaviour. The questionnaire was developed based on the theory is that there is a time-course over which emotions are generated and it is possible to use ER strategies at any point during this process. However the timing will influence your levels of success in regulating the emotion and for the questionnaire authors the key difference between the two strategies is in the time in which they are deployed. Reappraisal is antecedent focused thereby changing the course of the emotion experience, and suppression is response focused and therefore tries to stop the expression of the feeling once it has already arisen.Scoring & Interpretation
The ERQ-CA is scored by calculating the mean of items in each of the two subscales: Cognitive Reappraisal (6 items) and Expressive Suppression (4 items). Respondents use a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), with higher average scores indicating greater use of that strategy.Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency
Cronbach's alpha is .69-.86. For the Reappraisal scale, alpha reliability coefficients were .82 for 10- to 12- and 13- to 15-year-olds; .83 for the total sample and girls; .85 for boys; and .86 for 16- to 18-year-olds. (Compared to 75 - .82 for adults). For the Suppression scale, the alpha coefficient was .75 for total sample and ranged from .69 (for the 10- to 12-year-olds) to .79 (for the 16- to 18-year-olds). (Compared to .68 - .76 for adults)
Test-Retest Reliability
Factor Structure
The fit for the total sample 2 factor model is moderate (CFI .942, RMSEA .073), slightly better for boys (CFI = .943, RMSEA = .072) and for the 10- to12-year-old age group (CFI = .962, RMSEA = .052), but not as good for the 13- to 15-year-old age group (CFI = .871, RMSEA = .110). Correlation between factors is -.13 (p = .002).
Validity
Supression is positively associated with the Children's Depression Inventory .37 overall (.24 - .43 depending on age group), with neuroticism (.26 overall and .23 - .33 increasing with age) and negatively with extraversion (-.32 overall and -.19 to -.44 increasing with age) both from the Big-Five Questionnaire for Children (BFQ‑C) . Reappraisal is negatively associated with the CDI -.26 overall (-.25 - -.28, depending on age group), negatively with neuroticism (-.21 overall and -.20 to -.21 depending on age) and positively with extraversion (.28 overall and .25 - .29 depending on age).
Measurement Invariance
A MANOVA revealed a significant main effect of gender with girls showing higher rates of supression, but no main effect of age group.