Examining Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Strategies: Psychometric Properties of the Translated Dutch Early Emotion Regulation Behavior Questionnaire (EERBQ-Dutch)
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Emotion Regulation in Early Childhood
1.2. Emotion Regulation and (Psycho)pathology
1.3. Measuring Emotion Regulation in Early Childhood
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. EERBQ Translation
2.3. Structure of EERBQ-Dutch
2.4. Procedures
2.5. Data Analyses
3. Results
3.1. Internal Reliability
3.2. Item–Total Correlation
3.3. Test–Retest Reliability
3.4. EERBQ-Dutch Factor Structure
3.5. Relation Between EERBQ and Demographic Variables
4. Discussion
4.1. Psychometric Properties
4.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
4.3. Demographic Predictors for ER Strategies
4.4. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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ER Strategy | Definition |
---|---|
Mindfulness | Self-awareness of one’s own feelings (e.g., acknowledging feeling sad) |
Avoidance | Withdrawing from, hiding, or avoiding the source of arousal (e.g., becoming withdrawn, quiet, or retreating to a personal space) |
Distraction | The child’s ability to independently avert attention away from the source of distress to an activity or object less arousing (e.g., find another activity to do or toy to play with) |
Verbal Help-Seeking | Eliciting caregiver assistance in dampening emotional arousal through verbal communication such as conversation or questioning (e.g., initiating a conversation with the caregiver) |
Physical Help-Seeking | Eliciting caregiver assistance in dampening emotional arousal through physical contact such as hugs or holding (e.g., holding caregiver’s hand when feeling scared) |
Self-Soothing | Physical mechanism that is independently generated to calm oneself such as sucking or rubbing (e.g., sucking thumb or cuddling a blanket) |
Verbal Venting | Releasing arousal in a verbal way such as yelling, screaming, or crying (e.g., screaming because caregiver refuses to buy candy at a grocery store) |
Physical Venting | Releasing arousal in a physical way such as running, jumping, kicking, or hitting (e.g., hitting another child) |
Strategy | M (SD) | Range | α |
---|---|---|---|
Mindfulness | 4.8 (1.4) | 1.1–7.0 | 0.92 |
Avoidance | 2.2 (0.9) | 1.0–4.7 | 0.79 |
Distraction | 3.9 (1.1) | 1.3–6.8 | 0.84 |
Verbal Help-Seeking | 4.7 (1.3) | 1.0–7.0 | 0.90 |
Physical Help-Seeking | 5.1 (1.0) | 2.0–7.0 | 0.81 |
Self-Soothing | 2.1 (1.3) | 1.0–7.0 | 0.94 |
Verbal Venting | 2.6 (1.2) | 1.0–6.3 | 0.88 |
Physical Venting | 2.5 (0.9) | 1.0–5.6 | 0.83 |
Emotional Reactivity | 3.6 (0.9) | 1.7–5.6 | 0.66 |
Strategy | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S10 | S11 | S12 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mindfulness | 0.49 | 0.69 | 0.65 | 0.65 | 0.70 | 0.66 | 0.65 | 0.68 | 0.66 | 0.67 | 0.74 | 0.77 |
Avoidance | 0.47 | 0.42 | 0.23 | 0.53 | 0.58 | 0.49 | 0.32 | 0.63 | 0.29 | 0.45 | 0.31 | 0.48 |
Distraction | 0.47 | 0.42 | 0.56 | 0.57 | 0.60 | 0.42 | 0.34 | 0.60 | 0.41 | 0.51 | 0.54 | 0.58 |
Verbal Help-Seeking | 0.57 | 0.55 | 0.61 | 0.61 | 0.68 | 0.66 | 0.60 | 0.67 | 0.50 | 0.72 | 0.74 | 0.67 |
Physical Help-Seeking | 0.33 | 0.42 | 0.39 | 0.58 | 0.54 | 0.43 | 0.33 | 0.53 | 0.57 | 0.45 | 0.55 | 0.58 |
Self-Soothing | 0.67 | 0.79 | 0.63 | 0.71 | 0.77 | 0.79 | 0.79 | 0.79 | 0.76 | 0.76 | 0.65 | 0.78 |
Verbal Venting | 0.60 | 0.43 | 0.51 | 0.61 | 0.60 | 0.55 | 0.58 | 0.67 | 0.61 | 0.58 | 0.57 | 0.61 |
Physical Venting | 0.65 | 0.44 | 0.29 | 0.60 | 0.68 | 0.36 | 0.44 | 0.69 | 0.59 | 0.43 | 0.25 | 0.59 |
Emotional Reactivity | Question 1 | Question 2 | Question 3 | Question 4 | Question 5 | Question 6 | ||||||
0.52 | 0.58 | 0.49 | 0.51 | 0.18 | 0.13 |
Emotion Regulation Strategy | ICC | 95% CI | p |
---|---|---|---|
Mindfulness | 0.888 | [0.816, 0.931] | <0.001 |
Avoidance | 0.760 | [0.606, 0.853] | <0.001 |
Distraction | 0.804 | [0.678, 0.880] | <0.001 |
Verbal Help-Seeking | 0.938 | [0.899, 0.962] | <0.001 |
Physical Help-Seeking | 0.825 | [0.713, 0.893] | <0.001 |
Self-Soothing | 0.923 | [0.874, 0.953] | <0.001 |
Verbal Venting | 0.881 | [0.805, 0.927] | <0.001 |
Physical Venting | 0.836 | [0.731, 0.900] | <0.001 |
Emotional Reactivity | 0.855 | [0.763–0.912] | <0.001 |
Variable | Mindfulness | Avoidance | Distraction | Verbal Help-Seeking | Physical Help-Seeking | Self-Soothing | Verbal Venting | Physical Venting | Emotional Reactivity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Constant | 2.09 *** | 1.81 *** | 4.17 *** | 1.55 *** | 5.41 *** | 1.73 *** | 3.68 *** | 3.48 *** | 3.45 *** |
Age | 0.04 *** | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.04 *** | −0.01 | −0.00 | −0.02 *** | −0.01 *** | 0.00 |
Sex | 0.16 | −0.15 | 0.02 | 0.30 * | 0.11 | 0.06 | −0.27 | −0.43 *** | −0.28 * |
SES | 0.01 | 0.01 | −0.01 | 0.01 | −0.00 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.01 * |
R2 | 0.16 | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.25 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.06 | 0.11 | 0.04 |
Adj. R2 | 0.15 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.24 | 0.00 | −0.01 | 0.05 | 0.10 | 0.03 |
F(df = 3) | 16.80 *** | 1.92 | 1.25 | 30.46 *** | 1.00 | 0.30 | 6.30 *** | 10.87 *** | 3.46 * |
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Heselmans, I.; Van Gaever, M.; Hoogers, H.; Eggers, K. Examining Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Strategies: Psychometric Properties of the Translated Dutch Early Emotion Regulation Behavior Questionnaire (EERBQ-Dutch). Children 2025, 12, 494. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040494
Heselmans I, Van Gaever M, Hoogers H, Eggers K. Examining Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Strategies: Psychometric Properties of the Translated Dutch Early Emotion Regulation Behavior Questionnaire (EERBQ-Dutch). Children. 2025; 12(4):494. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040494
Chicago/Turabian StyleHeselmans, Iris, Marie Van Gaever, Hana Hoogers, and Kurt Eggers. 2025. "Examining Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Strategies: Psychometric Properties of the Translated Dutch Early Emotion Regulation Behavior Questionnaire (EERBQ-Dutch)" Children 12, no. 4: 494. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040494
APA StyleHeselmans, I., Van Gaever, M., Hoogers, H., & Eggers, K. (2025). Examining Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Strategies: Psychometric Properties of the Translated Dutch Early Emotion Regulation Behavior Questionnaire (EERBQ-Dutch). Children, 12(4), 494. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040494