Development and validation of the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale: Evidence from cross-sectional online data and an urban community-based mental health clinic

Objective To develop and validate the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity scale (B-MAS), a shorter version of the Mentalized Affectivity Scale (MAS). Methods In Study 1 (N = 978), participants from Amazon's Mechanical Turk were administered a battery of questionnaires including the B-MAS and traditional emotion regulation measures. In Study 2 (N = 230), clients from a community clinic completed a separate battery of measures, including the B-MAS, and personality and emotion regulation measures. Results There were four main findings: (1) the B-MAS is a psychometrically robust measure of emotion regulation and mentalization; (2) scores on the B-MAS are highly predictive of many clinical diagnoses; (3) scores on the B-MAS are just as or more predictive of wellbeing than traditional emotional regulation measures; and (4) as observed in an urban clinic with a diverse population, the B-MAS is useful clinically, especially because of its brevity. Conclusion The B-MAS contributes to the expanding scope of research on emotion regulation and has valuable clinical applications.