Bochum Assessment of Avoidance-based Emotion Regulation for Children (BAER-C)

Abstract

The Bochum Assessment of Avoidance-based Emotion Regulation for Children (BAER-C; Lippert et al., 2023) is an original inventory/questionnaire designed to assess different avoidance strategies in children. It specifically targets avoidance strategies, including cognitive avoidance, behavioral avoidance, verbal reassurance, and social reassurance, as well as reappraisal in anticipatory anxious situations. The development of the BAER-C involved generating twenty-five items, with an additional open-ended question to capture unlisted emotion regulation strategies. All but one item were phrased without negations. The BAER-C was administered to school children aged 8 to 14 years and children with anxiety disorders aged 8 to 16 years, along with their parents. A factor analysis supported a 5-factor model consisting of 21 final items. The reported results regarding reliability and validity were promising, though the construct validity showed ambiguous findings, leading the authors to suggest further research to thoroughly analyze construct validity in comparison with other emotion regulation questionnaires.

Keywords

Avoidance-Based Emotion Regulation, Behavioral Avoidance, Children, Emotion Regulation, Reappraisal, Social Reassurance, Suppression, Verbal Reassurance, Anxiety, Cognitive Appraisal, Emotional Assessment, State Trait Level Measures, Stress Reactions.

Authors

• Michael W. Lippert

• Katharina Sommer

• Tabea Flasinski

• Jan Schomberg

• Verena Pflug

• Hanna Christiansen

• Tina In-Albon

• Susanne Knappe

• Marcel Romanos

• Brunna Tuschen-Caffier

• Silvia Schneider

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Purpose

The BAER-C’s primary purpose is to assess various avoidance strategies employed by children in anticipatory anxious situations. It specifically aims to measure cognitive avoidance, behavioral avoidance, verbal reassurance, social reassurance, and reappraisal as emotion regulation strategies.

Validity

Convergent and Divergent validity was assessed. All avoidance subscales, with the exception of suppression, exhibited significant correlations with the anxiety symptom scale of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS-C; Spence, 1998) (all rs > .17, all ps < .05). Furthermore, the overall BAER-C avoidance score demonstrated a significant correlation with the total anxiety symptom scale of the SCAS-C (r = .23, p < .001), thus indicating convergent validity. Unexpectedly, only the social reassurance subscale correlated significantly with the internalizing symptoms subscale of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman et al., 2000). Contrary to the initial hypothesis, the suppression and reappraisal avoidance scales showed significant correlations with the externalizing subscale of the SDQ. Conversely, behavioral avoidance, social reassurance, and verbal reassurance did not show significant correlations with externalizing symptoms, thereby indicating discriminant validity for these specific subscales (r = .01, p = .85).

Reliability

The internal consistency of the BAER-C, as measured by McDonald’s ω, was .94. The internal consistency for the five individual subscales ranged from .78 to .85. The internal consistency of the overall avoidance scale was α = .86.

Factor Analysis

Exploratory factor analysis was conducted during the development of the BAER-C. An analysis of item difficulty and discriminatory power led to the exclusion of three items. These excluded items were situational in nature (e.g., “trying to hide in the room”) and were removed due to low discriminatory power (< .30). A five-factor structure was chosen based on the results of a parallel analysis. This 5-factor solution accounted for 54% of the variance with the new factor structure. The TLI of .873 and an RMSEA index of 0.072 indicated an acceptable model fit. In the student sample, the results also showed acceptable model fit. Although the χ2 test showed significance (χ2(184, 119) = 288.81, p < .00), the ratio between the chi-square statistic and the degrees of freedom indicated an acceptable model fit (χ2/df = 1.54 < 2 [57,58]). The RMSEA was .07 and SRMR was .08. The CFI and TLI values were slightly below the conventional threshold of 0.95 (CFI = .91, TLI = .89).

Instrument: BAER-C

• Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

• Format: Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale.

• Language Available: English

• Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

• Age Group: Childhood (birth-12 yrs), School Age (6-12 yrs), Adolescence (13-17 yrs), Adulthood (18 yrs & older).

• Population Details: The study was conducted in Germany. Respondents included school children aged 8 to 14 years and children with anxiety disorders aged 8 to 16 years, as well as their parents.

• Test Methodology: Test Validity, Construct Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Keywords

Avoidance-Based Emotion Regulation, Behavioral Avoidance, Children, Emotion Regulation, Reappraisal, Social Reassurance, Suppression, Verbal Reassurance, Anxiety, Cognitive Appraisal, Emotional Assessment, State Trait Level Measures, Stress Reactions.

Authors

• Lippert, Michael W.

  • Author ORCID Identifier: 0000-0002-5223-0137

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: [email protected]

  • Correspondence Address: [email protected]

• Sommer, Katharina

  • Author ORCID Identifier: 0000-0002-3856-6697

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Flasinski, Tabea

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Schomberg, Jan

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Pflug, Verena

  • Author ORCID Identifier: 0000-0002-6313-7296

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Christiansen, Hanna

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Phillips-University Marburg Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

  • Email address: No data is Available

• In-Albon, Tina

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: University of Koblenz-Landau Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Knappe, Susanne

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: Technische Universität Dresden Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Romanos, Marcel

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: University Hospital Würzburg Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Tuschen-Caffier, Brunna

  • Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

  • Affiliation: University Freiburg Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy

  • Email address: No data is Available

• Schneider, Silvia

  • Author ORCID Identifier: 0000-0003-0698-8411

  • Affiliation: Ruhr University Bochum Mental Health Research and Treatment Centre

  • Email address: No data is Available

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The BAER-C may be used for research and teaching purposes. No fee is required for its use, and it is not considered commercial. The test was developed and evaluated in 2023. Further information on permissions can be found at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en.

References

Lippert, M. W., Sommer, K., Flasinski, T., Schomberg, J., Pflug, V., Christiansen, H., In-Albon, T., Knappe, S., Romanos, M., Tuschen-Caffier, B., & Schneider, S. (2023). Bochum Assessment of Avoidance-based Emotion Regulation for Children (BAER-C): Development and evaluation of a new instrument measuring anticipatory avoidance-based emotion regulation in anxiety eliciting situations. PLoS ONE, 18(1), Article e0279658. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279658

Items of the BAER-C

The BAER-C is a 21-item measure. The original development involved 25 items, with an additional open-ended question. Through item analysis for difficulty and discriminatory power, three items were removed. The remaining 21 items are categorized into five factors/subscales: Behavioral Avoidance, Verbal Reinsurance, Social Reassurance, Suppression (as an Avoidance Scale), and Reappraisal. The items are available and were rated on a five-point Likert scale.

Bochum Assessment of Avoidance-based Emotion Regulation for Children (BAER-C)

When I am anxious…

Behavioural Avoidance

• Item 2: I try to avoid what makes me anxious.

• Item 3: I try to withdraw from the situation.

• Item 9: I try to get out of the way of what makes me afraid.

• Item 13: I try to avoid the situation in the future.

• Item 20: I try not to get in the situation in the future.

• Item 26: I try everything I can so that I do not encounter what makes me afraid.

Verbal Reassurance

• Item 5: I try to ask again and again if everything is going to be okay.

• Item 17: I try to ask someone if everything is okay.

Social Reassurance

• Item 12: I try not to be alone.

• Item 18: I try to have someone with me.

• Item 22: I try to have another person with me.

Suppression

• Item 7: I try to push what makes me afraid out of my head.

• Item 8: I try to forget what makes me afraid.

• Item 28: I try not to think about what makes me afraid.

Reappraisal

• Item 4: I try to think more positive about the situation.

• Item 15: I try to make the best out of the situation.

• Item 16: I try to tell myself that it is not that bad.

• Item 19: I try to tell myself that I can do it.

• Item 21: I try to find something good in the situation.

• Item 23: I try to ignore what makes me afraid.

• Item 27: I try to find explanations for the situation that reduce my fear.

Note: Children answer on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree).