A new questionnaire, named the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, has been constructed, measuring nine cognitive coping strategies people tend to use after having experienced negative life events. A test±retest design was used to study the psychometric properties and relationships with measures of depression and anxiety among 547 high school youngsters. Principal component analyses supported the allocation of items to subscales, while alphas of most subscales exceeded 0.80. Cognitive coping strategies were found to play an important role in the relationship between the experience of negative life events and the reporting of symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results suggest that cognitive coping strategies may be a valuable context of prevention and intervention #

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Aim of the present study was to develop a short 18-item version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ; Garnefski, Kraaij, & Spinhoven, 2001). The distinction into nine different conceptual scales (Self-blame, Other-blame, Rumination, Catastrophizing, Positive refocusing, Planning, Positive reappraisal, Putting into perspective and Acceptance) was left intact, while the number of items per scale was reduced from four to two. Psychometric properties of the new two-item scales as well as their relationships with two indicators of emotional problems, i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms are presented. Reliability and validity of the CERQ-short was supported by the results.

Abstract. The psychometric properties of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) as well as its prospective relationships with symptoms of depression and anxiety were studied in an adult general population sample. The results showed that the CERQ had good factorial validity and high reliabilities, with Cronbach's αs ranging between .75 and .87. In addition, the cognitive emotion regulation strategies accounted for considerable amounts of variance in emotional problems and strong relationships were found between the cognitive strategies self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing and positive reappraisal (inversely) and symptoms of depression and anxiety, both at first measurement and at follow-up. The CERQ might therefore be considered a valuable and reliable tool in the study of individual risk and protective factors associated with emotional problems, while providing us with important targets for intervention.

The present study focused on comparability of adolescents and adults in the reporting of cognitive coping strategies and their relationship to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Two samples were included: 487 adolescents attending a secondary school and 630 adults from a general practitioners practice. Data were obtained on symptoms of depression and anxiety and the use of nine cognitive coping strategies: acceptance, catastrophizing, other-blame, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, refocus on planning, positive refocusing, rumination and self-blame.The results showed that all cognitive coping strategies were reported by adolescents to a significantly lesser extent than by adults. Further, it was shown that both in adolescents and adults a considerable percentage of the variance in symptomatology was explained by the use of cognitive coping strategies. Although adolescents and adults differed in relative strength of the relationships, generally speaking, conclusions were the same: in both groups, the cognitive coping strategies self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing and positive reappraisal were shown to play the most important role in the reporting of symptoms of psychopathology, showing the importance of introducing prevention and intervention programmes at an early stage.