Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Daily Life: Assessment, Dynamics, and Links to Stress-Affective States and Traits

Emotion regulation difficulties are implicated in most psychopathologies, yet their everyday dynamics remain unclear. We adapted and validated the State Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (S-DERS) for ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and examined how such difficulties unfold in daily life. In a preregistered study (N = 214; 6 surveys/day for 10 days), participants reported on stressors, affect, and the S-DERS. Confirmatory analyses supported the S-DERS four-factor structure, with evidence against a general shared difficulty factor, and we provide validated 4-, 8-, and 18-item EMA versions with practical recommendations. Emotion regulation difficulties showed both stability and meaningful fluctuations, increasing after stressors, co-occurring with negative affect, and predicting impaired affective recovery. These effects were stronger among individuals high in trait DERS and neuroticism. Findings position emotion regulation difficulties as dynamic, context-sensitive processes that can be robustly measured in daily life to inform clinical science and intervention.