Replication Data for: Psychometric properties of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) measures two emotional regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Although widely used, there is no much information about the way both strategies relate to alexithymia and empathy, in addition the psychometric properties of the ERQ in a Mexican sample are unknown. We examined such psychometric properties in a Mexican sample (N = 792), characterizing also the way both strategies relate with alexithymia and empathy utilizing the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the two-factor model. Each factor showed acceptable levels of Cronbach’s alpha reliability scores. Cognitive reappraisal scores correlated negatively with alexithymia and positively with higher empathy measures, while expressive suppression correlated positively with alexithymia and personal distress, and negatively with perspective taking and empathic concern. Although, both strategies correlated with most of the alexithymia and empathy subscales, the strength of these correlations was different, cognitive reappraisal correlated more strongly with both cognitive empathy scales and with empathic concern; whereas expressive suppression showed stronger correlations with personal distress and all the alexithymia scales. Furthermore, the relation between cognitive reappraisal and perspective taking seems to be moderated by empathic concern. Our findings suggest that the ERQ has strong psychometric properties in a Mexican sample and its use in conjunction with other tests can complement the assessment of affective traits.