Participants
Sample 1 (for item analysis and exploratory factor analysis): Based on convenient sampling, 469 paper questionnaires were distributed in the self-study class by class test from 2 middle schools and 2 high schools in Hebei Province, and 424 valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, 188 were boys, 236 were girls, 208 were junior high school students, and 216 were senior high school students. The mean age was 14.78 ± 2.05 years.
Sample 2 (for confirmative factor analysis): Based on convenient sampling, we selected 2 middle schools and 2 high schools in Hebei Province and distributed 608 paper questionnaires in the self-study class in the form of class tests, and 586 valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, 285 were boys and 301 were girls; 312 were middle school students, and 274 were high school students. The mean age was 15.01 ± 1.76 years.
Sample 3 (for test-retest reliability): In sample 2, 118 students were selected from 2 class in grade one. After a month's interval, the test questionnaire was distributed again, and 104 participants had valid test data for both tests. Among them, 48 were boys and 56 were girls. There were 55 middle school students and 49 high school students.
Instruments
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-8(DERS-8)
The scale, developed by Penner et al., is a single-dimensional structure consisting of 8 items, scored with 1 (never) to 5 (always) points, without reverse-scoring questions [3]. The higher the total score, the more difficult it is to regulate emotions. After obtaining the English version of the scale, we sinicized DERS-8 concerning the complete Chinese version to make it more suitable for Chinese cultural background and language expression habits, as shown in Table 1. In the early stage, 15 teenagers were recruited to evaluate the comprehensibility of the articles, and the comprehensibility ratio of each article was above 90%. Finally, after repeated modifications, the Chinese version of DERS-8 was formed.
General Anxiety Disorder Scale
A total of 7 questions (such as "worrying too much about a variety of things") were measured [16], using a scale of 0 to 3 (never to a lot), belonging to a single-dimensional structure, and the higher the score, the higher the anxiety. Cronbach’s α coefficient in this measurement is 0.83.
Depression Scale
Derived from the depression subscale of the abbreviated Self-Rating Symptom Scale [17], there are 7 questions (such as "I feel depressed and sad"), and it is a single-dimensional structure. A scale of 0 to 4 was used (no ~ always), with higher scores indicating more significant depression. Cronbach’s α coefficient in this measurement is 0.82.
Emotion Regulation Scale
A total of 14 questions, including two factors of cognitive reappraisal and expression inhibition, were scored on a scale of 1 to 7 points (very negative to very positive), with higher scores indicating better use of specific emotion regulation strategies [18]. The Cronbach’s α coefficients of the two factors in this measurement were 0.71 and 0.73, respectively.
Data analysis
SPSS 24.0 was used for descriptive statistics, correlation, and exploratory factor analysis. AMOS 24.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and measurement Invariance tests.