The parent version of the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ-P) is a brief 13-item tool for the screening of depression in children from the age of 6 years. Despite the wide use of the SMFQ-P, its psychometric properties and factor structure remain understudied, with few data available for young school-aged children. The objective of this study was to examine for the first time the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the SMFQ-P in a non-clinical sample of Spanish-speaking children aged 6–8 years. Participants were 181 children whose parents completed the Spanish-adapted version of the SMFQ-P along with the parent version of other measures of anxiety and general difficulties and positive attributes. The SMFQ-P demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α = .83) and test-retest reliability over an eight-week period (ICC = .80), and good convergent and divergent validity. Factor analysis confirmed the original 13-item model, thus supporting the unidimensionality of the measure in the Spanish sample. Overall, this study provides initial empirical evidence for the utility of the SMFQ-P with Spanish-speaking children from early school ages, and extends the international support of the measure.

This paper presents the translation, adaptation and validation of a broadly used scale to measure emotion regulation strategies (i.e. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Children and Adolescents –ERQ-CA; Gullone & Taffe, 2012) in a sample of early adolescents. The 10-item scale was applied to a sample of 248 adolescents (128 boys) aged 13 to 14 years. Semi-confirmatory factor analysis supported the original two-factor structure: Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression (SRMR = .05; RMSEA = .06; CFI = .96). These two factors demonstrate adequate internal consistency and evidence for convergent validity with other scales that refer to emotional intelligence, affect, and behavior. Thus, Cognitive Reappraisal scores were associated with higher self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect and personal adjustment (ps < .05). Conversely, Expressive Suppression scores were associated with lower self-perceived emotional abilities, positive affect, and personal adjustment (ps < .01), with higher scores on negative affect, school and clinical maladjustment (ps < .01), as well as stress and depression symptoms (ps < .001). Overall, these findings suggest that the questionnaire may be a useful and reliable instrument for the assessment of emotion regulation strategies in early adolescents for future research in Spanish speaking countries.