Factorial Structure of the German Version of the Emotion Expression Scale for Children in Early Adolescents

In Germany, there are no self-report questionnaires assessing emotion awareness in youth under the age of 16 years or simultaneously with emotion suppression. The “Emotion Expression Scale for Children” (EESC) measuring lack of emotion awareness and reluctance to express emotions in 10- to 15-year-olds can fill this gap. Goal of this study was to evaluate the factorial structure of the German version of the 16-item EESC in a test and a validation sample of overall 588 adolescents (314 boys; Mage = 11.6 years; SD = .74). The original structure comprised of the factors “Poor Awareness” and “Expressive Reluctance” could not be confirmed in the test sample using confirmatory factor analysis. An exploratory factor analysis yield a one-factor structure. Modification process led to an adjusted one-factor model with 13 items, which fitted the data best in the validation sample. The factor was named “Low Emotion Awareness/Suppression.” Results indicated that the EESC structure is not measurement invariant. Reasons for missing fit of the two-factor model are discussed.