The ability to adequately regulate emotions is crucial for maintaining good mental health. Research on individual differences in emotion regulation is not new, but further progress is hindered by difficulties in adequately measuring individual differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies, such as a limited number of strategies included in questionnaires, conceptual overlap between strategies and clinical symptoms, unclear definitions of strategies, and a predominant focus on the frequency of strategy use rather than on their effectiveness and situational appropriateness. In this master's thesis, we aimed to contribute to the introduction of an instrument for studying individual differences in emotion regulation in the Slovenian environment. We conducted a systematic review of emotion regulation questionnaires in which we collected and evaluated 38 self-report measures for adults. Based on the review findings, we translated and psychometrically evaluated the Process Model of Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (PMERQ; Olderbak et al., 2023) from English into Slovenian. This instrument comprehensively assesses individual differences in the use of emotion regulation strategies across all stages of the Process Model of Emotion Regulation (Gross, 1998), while also distinguishing between engagement- and avoidance-oriented strategies. The study sample comprised 304 adults from the general population, who completed the Slovenian version of the PMERQ along with the ERQ, BFI-S, and PWBS-18 questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate fit of the modified ten-factor hierarchical model. Two items were excluded on substantive grounds, and the subscale Focus Elsewhere was allowed to load on both higher-order factors. Most subscales demonstrated acceptable reliability (α ranging from 0,73 to 0,90), whereas Focus Elsewhere (α = 0,58) and Reduce Importance (α = 0,42) showed low reliability. Convergent validity was supported by the correlation between PMERQ and ERQ subscales measuring expressive suppression. We found that extraversion is positively associated with several PMERQ subscales that measure engagement-oriented strategies, such as Confront Unpleasant Situations, Resolve Conflicts, and Support by Emotion Sharing. Neuroticism, on the other hand, is positively associated with PMERQ subscales that measure avoidance-oriented strategies, such as Avoid Unpleasant Situations and Expressive Suppression. We also confirmed statistically significant positive associations between engagement-oriented strategies and various aspects of psychological well-being — Confront Unpleasant Situations, Resolve Conflicts and Consider Benefits.
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