Assessing emotion beliefs with the Polish version of the Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ): psychometric properties, norms, and links with emotional reactivity and psychopathology

Abstract

Originally developed in English, the Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) is a self-report measure of beliefs about the controllability and usefulness of negative and positive emotions. In this study, we introduce the Polish version and examine its psychometric properties and links with emotional outcomes. Our sample was 914 Polish adults aged 18–70 from the general population. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to verify the factor structure. Convergent and divergent validity were assessed based on the relationship between the EBQ and emotional reactivity traits as well as markers of anxiety, depression, and stress. We assessed internal consistency reliability. We also examined discriminant validity by conducting exploratory factor analyses of EBQ scores and emotional reactivity traits and psychopathology symptoms. We evaluated criterion validity by conducting a set of multiple regression analyses, examining whether EBQ scores could predict significant variance in psychopathology symptoms. Our factor analyses supported the EBQ’s factorial validity, conforming to the intended 4-factor structure (subscales: negative-controllability, positive-controllability, negative-usefulness, positive-usefulness), with support also found for a higher-order general factor (e.g., CFI = 0.941, RMSEA = 0.063). This structure was invariant across gender and age categories. The EBQ subscales correlated in expected directions with emotional reactivity traits and psychopathology symptoms. The EBQ showed good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.77–0.88) and discriminant validity. Beliefs about the uncontrollability of negative emotions were the strongest unique predictor of psychopathology symptoms. We also presented percentile rank norms for Polish adults. The Polish version of the EBQ appears to have strong psychometric properties and good clinical relevance.