TITLE:
Children’s Emotion Regulation Scale in Mathematics (CERS-M): Development and Validation of a Self-Reported Instrument
AUTHORS:
Vanessa Hanin, Jacques Grégoire, Moïra Mikolajczak, Carole Fantini-Hauwel, Catherine Van Nieuwenhoven
KEYWORDS:
Scale Development, Emotion Regulation, Evidence of Validity and Reliability, Mathematics Problem-Solving, Upper Elementary Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.8 No.13,
November
30,
2017
ABSTRACT: This article introduces the development and validation of a self-report questionnaire: the Children’s Emotion Regulation scale in Mathematics (CERS-M). Results highlighted a) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a meaningful six-factor model (emotion expression, task utility self-persuasion, help-seeking, negative self-talk, brief attentional relaxation, and dysfunctional avoidance); b) satisfactory internal reliabilities; c) test-retest reliability scores indicative of a satisfactory stability of the measures over time; d) preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with CERS-M being very weakly linked to verbal skill and moderately to emotion regulation strategies measured through the Flemish version of the COPE-questionnaire; e) preliminary evidence of criterion validity, with CERS-M scores predicting math anxiety, and to a lesser extent, students’ performance; f) preliminary evidence of incremental validity, with the CERS-M predicting math anxiety and performance over and above emotion regulation measured by the COPE-questionnaire. Findings constitute encouraging preliminary psychometric characteristics in favor of the use of the CERS-M.