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The Abbreviated Dysregulation Inventory: Dimensionality and Psychometric Properties in Portuguese Adolescents

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Abstract

Psychological dysregulation is a complex and multidimensional construct encompassing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions. Research on psychological dysregulation emphasizes its importance in relation to several psychological disorders. However, assessing psychological dysregulation is often problematic because many of the existing instruments address a specific dysregulation dimension at a time, predominantly emotional dysregulation. The Abbreviated Dysregulation Inventory (ADI) was developed to assess three dimensions of psychological dysregulation: emotional, cognitive and behavioral. This study’s goal was to analyze the factor structure, internal consistency, and validity in relation to external variables of the Portuguese version of the ADI in a sample of 511 adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years old. The 3-factor solution was confirmed, and high internal consistency was found for the three subscales. Peculiar findings on the cognitive dysregulation subscale raised issues addressed in the discussion section. Results indicated that dysregulation associates positively with aggressive behavior and negatively with quality of life. Age and gender presented small influence on the cognitive and behavioral subscales scores, respectively. Findings suggested that ADI can be a valuable self-report measure to assess cognitive, behavioral or emotional dysregulation in youths, within research and psychological intervention settings.

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Author Contributions

C.D.M. conducted the literature review and statistical analyses, manuscript preparation, revisions and editing; D.R. contributed to the design, coordinating data collection and methodological aspects concerning this paper, manuscript revisions and editing; P.V. and B.S. provided further consulting for methodology and statistical analyses, and revising and editing the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Azores University, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Carolina Dall’Antonia da Motta

  2. CINEICC, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Carolina Dall’Antonia da Motta, Daniel Rijo, Paula Vagos & Bruno Sousa

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  1. Carolina Dall’Antonia da Motta
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Correspondence to Carolina Dall’Antonia da Motta.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee, the approval from the Ethical Committee from the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Coimbra, and in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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da Motta, C.D., Rijo, D., Vagos, P. et al. The Abbreviated Dysregulation Inventory: Dimensionality and Psychometric Properties in Portuguese Adolescents. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3806–3815 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1217-y

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