Free Online Test
Free Emotional Regulation Test (DERS-18)
This free emotional regulation test is the DERS-18, an 18-question measure of difficulty managing emotions. It scores six specific areas: awareness of emotions, clarity about what you feel, staying goal-directed when upset, controlling impulses, accepting your own emotions, and believing strategies are available. Higher scores mean more difficulty.
- Questions
- 18
- Time
- ~3 min
- Instrument
- DERS-18
- Cost
- Free
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What this measures
Difficulty regulating emotions, across six areas. Time frame: in general.
This is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It can tell you how your answers compare to established ranges. It cannot tell you what is causing them, whether something else explains them, or what you should do next. Only a licensed clinician can do that, in a conversation.
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0 of 18 answered
In general
Please indicate how often the following statements apply to you.
Answer every question to see your result.
Your result
0
out of 18-90
Breakdown by area
- Awareness0
- Clarity0
- Nonacceptance0
- Goals0
- Impulse0
- Strategies0
The DERS-18 has no established clinical cutoff. The bands below are descriptive guides for reading your own result, and the six subscale scores are more informative than the total.
What this result is not
This is a screening score, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. It reflects how you answered today. It cannot account for your history, your circumstances, a medical condition, a medication, or anything else that might explain these answers. If the result matches what you have been experiencing, the useful next step is a conversation with a licensed professional - not a second test.
Your score is not saved. Leaving or refreshing this page clears it.
About the DERS-18
The DERS-18 measures something most tests do not: not what you feel, but what happens when you feel it. It breaks emotion regulation into six areas rather than producing one undifferentiated number.
Those six areas are awareness (noticing what you feel), clarity (understanding it), goals (staying functional while upset), impulse (keeping control of your behavior), nonacceptance (whether you judge yourself for having the feeling), and strategies (whether you believe anything will help).
The subscale profile matters more than the total. Someone who scores high only on nonacceptance has a very different problem from someone who scores high only on impulse, and the two call for different work.
One caution from the research: the awareness subscale is the least reliable of the six. Do not read too much into that one on its own.
Emotional Regulation Test questions
What is emotional dysregulation?
It describes difficulty managing the intensity, duration, or expression of emotions - reactions that feel bigger than the situation, take a long time to settle, or lead to behavior you later regret. It is a pattern, not a diagnosis, and it appears across many different conditions.
What do the six subscales mean?
Awareness is whether you notice your emotions. Clarity is whether you understand them. Goals is whether you can keep functioning while upset. Impulse is whether you keep control of your behavior. Nonacceptance is whether you judge yourself for feeling it. Strategies is whether you believe anything can help.
Is there a cutoff score for this test?
No established clinical cutoff exists for the DERS-18. That is why the bands here are described as guides rather than thresholds. The most useful reading is comparing your six subscale scores against each other to see where the difficulty concentrates.
Can emotional regulation actually be improved?
Yes. It is a set of skills rather than a fixed trait, and it is one of the more directly teachable things in therapy. Skills-based approaches work on exactly these six areas - noticing feelings, naming them, tolerating them without acting, and building strategies that work.
Anger and emotional regulationWhy are some questions worded positively?
Three items - about paying attention to feelings, being attentive to them, and acknowledging them - are worded in the positive direction and are reverse-scored automatically. Mixing directions this way is standard practice; it keeps people from answering on autopilot.
Other free tests
- Stress TestDASS-21 · 21 questions
- Anxiety TestGAD-7 · 7 questions
- Depression TestPHQ-9 · 9 questions
- Functioning TestWSAS · 5 questions
If this is something you are dealing with, here is how we treat it: Anger.
Instrument and attribution
DERS-18. Victor, S. E., & Klonsky, E. D. (2016). Validation of a brief version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-18) in five samples. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. Distributed free by the authors for clinical and research use. Original scale: Gratz & Roemer (2004).
- Victor, S. E., & Klonsky, E. D. (2016). Validation of a brief version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-18) in five samples. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 38, 582-589.
- Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41-54.
Reviewed by the MindView Therapy Team · July 30, 2026
A score is a starting point, not an answer
If something on this page matched what you have been feeling, talk it through with a licensed therapist. We respond within one business day.