Introduction
Emotion regulation involves processes used by individuals to manage, evaluate, and modify their emotional responses. These processes include both cognitive and behavioral strategies. Models such as the cognitive emotion regulation model and the process model of emotion regulation, describe strategies for emotion regulation, categorized into positive and negative strategies. The biopsychosocial model further identifies four components: Emotional sensitivity, emotional instability, emotional reactivity, and consequences of dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation, the inability to adaptively manage emotions, is linked to a variety of psychological disorders. Tools such as the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) assess two primary strategies including cognitive reappraisal and suppression, while the difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS) focuses on the behavioral and emotional outcomes of dysregulation. Despite shorter versions such as DERS-SF, these tools fail to fully address all aspects of emotional dysregulation. In this regard, the brief emotion dysregulation scale (BEDS) was developed based on Carpenter and Trull’s multi-component model. Unlike other tools, the BEDS emphasizes the experience and consequences of emotional dysregulation rather than specific strategies. It is particularly relevant for disorders such as borderline personality disorder. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the BEDS for the Iranian population, in order to provide a reliable tool for screening and assessing emotion dysregulation in both clinical and research settings in Iran.
Methods
This is a psychometrics, descriptive/correlational study. Participants were 814 individuals selected via convenience sampling from the general population of Iran. Inclusion criteria were informed consent, literacy, and an age range of 18 to 70 years. The sample size was determined based on Klein’s recommendation, considering 5 participants per parameter. A demographic form collected their information including age, gender, marital status, educational level, psychiatric history, and economic status.
The English version of the questionnaire was first translated into Persian and revised by language experts and psychologists for item quality. After a final revision, the questionnaire was distributed via online platforms (Instagram and Telegram). A total of 900 participants completed the questionnaire. After excluding incomplete responses, 814 valid questionnaires remained for final analysis.
To assess the convergent and divergent validity of the Persian version, we used the borderline personality questionnaire (BPQ), DERS (with 16 items, measuring emotional dysregulation such as lack of emotional clarity, impulsivity, and limited access to effective regulation strategies), and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES).
Results
Among 814 participants, 277 were female (34%), 262 male (32.2%) and 275 with unknown gender (33.8%).The participants’ educational backgrounds varied, with the highest percentage holding a bachelor’s degree (34.4%). The mean age of participants was 35.83±12.8 years. To assess construct validity, participants were randomly divided into two groups. The first group underwent exploratory factor analysis, while the second group underwent confirmatory factor analysis. Before performing the factor analyses, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure (0.805) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ2=1095.385, P=0.001) confirmed the suitability of the data for factor analysis. As can be seen in
Table 1, the Persian BEDS’s scores in total and in domains (consequences, sensitivity, instability) had significant positive relationships with the DERS-16 and BPQ scores, and a significant negative relationships with the RSES score.

The internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) was 0.75 for the overall scale, 0.77 for the consequences, 0.68 for the sensitivity, and 0.51 for the instability domains.
Conclusion
The results demonstrated satisfactory convergent and divergent validity, and construct validity of the Persian BEDS. In conclusion, the Persian BEDS has strong psychometric properties and is a reliable tool for the use for both research and clinical purposes in Iran.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran (Code: IR.KHU.REC.1402.099). All participants provided written informed consent after receiving complete information about the study objectives and procedures. Their personal information was kept confidential, and they had the right to leave the study at any time.
Funding
This article was extracted from the PhD dissertation master's thesis Fatemeh Ayatmehr, approved by the Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for profit sectors.
Authors contributions
Study design, data collection, analysis, and writing the original draft: Fatemeh Ayatmehr; Review and editing: Alireza Moradi, Robabeh Noori Qasemi-Abadi, and Mehdi Akbari; Supervision: Alireza Moradi; Final approval: All authors.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mavaddat Saeedi, Shiva Jamshidi, and Alireza Jamalu for their assistance in assessing the questionnaire’s translated version.