Evaluating emotion regulation ability across negative and positive emotions: psychometric properties of the Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI) in American adults and Iranian adults and adolescents

ABSTRACT Objective A critical factor for adaptive psychological functioning is the ability to successfully regulate negative and positive emotions. Various tools and methods have been developed to assess emotion regulation competence. Recently, the Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI) was developed to overcome some of the limitations of previous assessment tools including a lack of emotion regulation assessment across both positive and negative emotions. To date, no studies have examined the PERCI’s psychometric properties among adolescents and non-Western general populations. Method To address this gap in the literature, we examined the psychometric properties of the PERCI among Iranian adolescents (n = 557), Iranian adults (n = 926), and American adults (n = 242). Participants also completed Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) for measuring the concurrent validity of the PERCI. Results Confirmatory factor analyses supported the intended eight-factor structure that distinguishes between different emotion regulation components and negative and positive emotions. The eight-factor structure was also found invariant in terms of gender, age, and culture groups. Furthermore, the PERCI demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, as well as expected associations with measures of psychopathology, emotion regulation strategy, and alexithymia. Conclusions Our findings indicate that the PERCI has strong psychometric properties among both Middle Eastern and Western samples and can also be utilised with adolescents. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: Difficulties in emotion regulation are contributing to the development, maintenance of numerous forms of psychopathology. The assessment of emotion regulation difficulties has been limited as it primarily focusd only on negative emotions. The Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI) was recently developed to provide an integrated and valence-sensitive assessment of emotion regulation ability. What this topic adds: The PERCI can be used to measure emotion regulation competency in both adults and adolescents. The intended eight-factor structure of the PERCI that distinguishes between different emotion regulations components and negative and positive emotions was supported. The intended factor structure of the PERCI found invariant in terms of gender, age, and culture groups.