Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS): The development and validation of a new individual difference measure

Research on affect regulation has blossomed in recent years. However, the lack of validated scales assessing individual differences in the use of strategies to achieve alternative types of affect regulation, e.g., the regulation of others’ affect and the worsening of affect, has hampered research on these important processes. This paper presents the development and validation of a brief new measure of individual differences in the use of strategies to regulate one’s own and other people’s feelings:m the Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS) scale. Two distinct samples (N=551 and N=227) confirmed a four-factor structure: intrinsic affect-improving, intrinsic affect-worsening, extrinsic affect-improving and extrinsic affect-worsening. In line with predictions, these factors were associated with existing measures of affect regulation, personality and affect. Both intrinsic factors were positively associated with emotional exhaustion, while all factors except extrinsic affect-improving were positively associated with health-related impairments. Convergence between self- and other-reported scores on the extrinsic factors in a third sample (N=50 dyads) demonstrated further evidence of validity.