# Cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire: Evidence of internal structure through confirmatory factor modeling and exploratory structural equation modeling

## TL;DR

This study evaluates the structure of a questionnaire measuring cognitive emotion regulation and finds that its traditional 9-factor model is not reliable.

## Contribution

The study introduces exploratory structural equation modeling to better understand the questionnaire's internal structure.

## Key findings

- The traditional 9-factor structure of the CERQ does not fit well with the data.
- Exploratory structural equation modeling provides a better fit than previous methods.
- Summed scores based on the original factors may be misleading for psychological assessment.

## Abstract

The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire is one of the most widely used instruments to measure cognitive emotion regulation, and its psychometric properties have been evaluated in various studies and cultural contexts. However, the 9-factor internal structure originally proposed for the scale measures does not present consistent evidence in the literature. The exclusive use of the confirmatory factor modeling in previous literature may largely explain this inconsistency. In the present research, we propose to estimate innovative measurement models for this questionnaire, the exploratory structural equation modeling. For this purpose, we worked with a large sample of Argentines of 6881 Argentine adults aged between 18 and 81 (M = 27.14, SD = 9.86; 69.6% female; 86.4% not being in psychological or psychiatric treatment) and compared the fit of the models. The results favored the exploratory structural equation model (χ2 = 4092.89, df = 342, CFI = .982, SRMR = .013, RMSEA = .04), indicating that we are not observing indicators that reflect simple factorial structures. Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the simple 9-factor structure traditionally proposed for the CERQ does not exhibit adequate model fit. This finding suggests the need for caution among applied psychologists and clinical researchers who interpret scale scores as if they reflect distinct, unidimensional factors. The common practice of generating summed scores across items associated with each of the originally proposed factors may therefore be questionable. A more nuanced understanding of the questionnaire’s internal structure may ultimately enhance the reliability and interpretability of CERQ scores in both clinical and applied settings, thereby improving the quality of psychological assessment and intervention outcomes.