Translation and psychometric evaluation of the Regulation Emotion Systems Survey - Italian version

The Regulation of Emotion System Survey (RESS) is a 38-item, self-report questionnaire that aims to assess on a common scale the individual’s propensity to use six emotional strategies (Distraction, Rumination, Reappraisal, Suppression, Engagement, Arousal Control). It has been demonstrated to be a valid tool to assess multiple regulation strategies to down-regulate personal experiences of negative emotions (De France & Hollenstein, 2017). De France & Hollenstein (2017) also identified 3 different profiles relating to the emotion regulation repertoires: Average, Suppression Propensity and Engagement Propensity. The aim of this study was to develop an Italian version of the RESS. The items were translated into Italian and the questionnaire was administrated to 250 participants (mean age = 32.29; SD = 11.36; males 55.3%). A CFA was run to verify the factorial structure which emerged from the English version. Furthermore, an abbreviated version (24 items selected from the original 38) was tested by means of a CFA. The results revealed that this version approximates the factors obtained with the full-length version. Finally, a latent profile analysis revealed the same emotion regulation repertoires as the 38 item version in English. The structure of the RESS was thus confirmed for both the long and short versions of the Italian questionnaire. Moreover, the consistency of the 3 repertoire profiles was confirmed. These repertoires emerged from data collected with a sample that, compared to the participants of the two studies by De France & Hollenstein (2017), was older and more gender balanced.