The progressive aging of our society is a significant issue in this era. Aging is a natural process that may be experienced by people at different times; however, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines aging as being over 60 years of age (World Health Organization [WHO], 2007). According to the WHO, there are currently 600 million older people worldwide, which is projected to double by 2025 and reach 2 billion (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). Iran is also facing an increase in the number of older adults, and according to UN statistics in 2006, the number of people over 60 years of age in Iran accounted for 6% of the total population, i.e., a population of 4,562,000. According to forecasts, this figure will reach 263,930,000 people by 2050, which is a population equivalent to 26% of the total population (Mehri et al., 2020).

Aging is a phenomenon that needs to be managed because older people often experience changes that can sometimes lead to physical, mental, and social limitations that overshadow their quality of life (Samarakoon et al., 2011; McPhee et al., 2016). Self-care, as a health-promoting behavior, can help older people manage the consequences of these changes (Callaghan, 2005). Self-care must be planned to meet all the needs of old people (Goes et al., 2020). Self-regulation is a mechanism that can help implement effective self-care (Koch and Nafziger, 2011). It is a goal-oriented process that increases the capacity for planning to initiate appropriate behavior and control inappropriate behavior (Mann et al., 2013; Wehmeyer and Shogren, 2017).

There is a controversy among scientists about self-regulatory steps. Bandura proposed that self-regulation consists of three steps: self-observation, judgment, and self-response (Bandura and Jourden, 1991). Kanfer proposed a three-step theory that includes self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement (Kanfer, 1970). Miller and Brown defined self-regulation in seven dimensions, which include information input, self-monitoring, triggering change, searching for options, planning, implementation, and assessing the plan’s effectiveness (Miller and Brown, 1991).

Because measuring the level of self-regulation in older adults is necessary for self-care planning, it is beneficial to use an appropriate questionnaire based on the self-regulation steps and tailor it to the older population. According to our search, several questionnaires, such as the Beaufort Self-Regulatory Questionnaire and the Barnard Self-Regulatory Learning Questionnaire, measured only one aspect of self-regulation, namely self-regulated learning (Taghizade et al., 2020; Tahmasbipour et al., 2021). Fortunately, one of the oldest and most common questionnaires in accordance with our goal was the 31-item Short Form Self-Regulatory Questionnaire (SSRQ), which is derived from the 63-item Self-Regulatory Questionnaire (SRQ; Brown et al., 1999). This questionnaire can measure older adults’ general ability to regulate behavior and has been extensively validated across different populations and cultures (Garzon Umerenkova et al., 2017; Chen and Lin, 2018). Carey et al. extracted the SSRQ from the SRQ and considered one dimension that indicated overall self-regulatory capacity (Carey et al., 2004). In 2005, Neil and Carey assessed the psychometric properties of the SSRQ, and two dimensions, including impulse control and goal setting, were introduced through factor analysis (Neal and Carey, 2005). In 2009, Potgieter and Botha conducted a study on students and identified seven factors: monitoring, decision-making, learning from mistakes, mindful awareness, perseverance, creativity, and self-evaluation (Potgieter and Botha, 2009).

It has been suggested that the dimensions of self-regulation may differ among population groups and different cultures (Garzon Umerenkova et al., 2017; Chen and Lin, 2018). Therefore, it was necessary to conduct an independent and purposeful study for the psychometrics of this questionnaire in Iran. Zeinali et al. (2011), in the section “Materials and Methods” of one study in several lines, briefly reported the psychometric properties of the SSRQ for use in Iranian adolescents and proposed a 28-item version. As the participants in our study were older adults, this tool had to be tailored to their culture and abilities. According to our search, the psychometric properties of SSRQ for measuring self-regulation in Iranian older adults had not been evaluated. In addition, no cutoff point was reported in various versions. The evidence indicated that determining the cutoff point is important because it acts as a classification boundary and provides a boundary for interpreting scores above and below that point (Carle et al., 2011). Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to assess the psychometric properties of the SSRQ in Iranian older adults, identify subscales based on the constructs of self-regulation theory, and finally determine optimal cutoff point.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shiraz from November 2020 to March 2021, and 500 older adults over the age of 60 were selected using a two-stage convenience sampling method (stage 1, n = 250; stage 2, n = 250). Due to the lack of access to the initial participants, the use of two samples prevented the effect of being familiar with the first questionnaire when completing the second questionnaire and as a better questionnaire response after reducing items. Community-dwelling older adults were recruited using two types of convenience sampling techniques including grab approach and snowball sampling. Due to the epidemic, in a grab sampling approach, we visited nursing homes and urban health centers and, after checking medical records, contacted eligible older adults, and invited them to participate in the study and fill out an online questionnaire via WhatsApp or a link. We used the snowball technique to send questionnaires via WhatsApp to older people who were introduced by their peers after testing their cognitive status with questions from the researcher. The inclusion criteria invovled community-dwelling adults aged 60 and older with at least an elementary level of literacy, a smartphone, and internet access. The exclusion criteria included older adults who had persistent severe psychological problems and were reluctant to participate in the study.

The three main objectives of this study were to assess the validity and reliability of the SSRQ in an Iranian older adult population sample and to identify subscales and cutoff points. We used precise methods based on psychometric criteria to confirm the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the SSRQ, and we obtained a questionnaire with four subscales and 20 items. With proper fit indices, the final SSRQ was shorter than the original. Similar to our study, Chen and Lin found that, while validating the SSRQ in Taiwanese students, the number of questionnaire items was reduced to 22 items and a shorter questionnaire was obtained (Chen and Lin, 2018). It seems that a decrease in the number of questionnaire items compared to the original one may be related to cultural, environmental, and population group differences. On the other hand, we believe that the shortness of the questionnaire is a good feature of a measure for use in the older population because it is much faster to complete and more practical due to vision dysfunction and reading problems of older people. Bowling et al. proposed that the use of short scales in older adults can improve measurement accuracy (Feizi and Heidari, 2020).

In this study, we obtained four subscales for the SSRQ in Iranian older population including self-awareness, goal setting, action planning, and self-monitoring. The subscales were named based on the content of their subitems and using the constructs of the self-regulation theory. These subscales are somewhat consistent with the Bandura self-regulatory stages (Bandura and Jourden, 1991). Bandura proposed that self-observation as the first step of self-regulation is a process that involves the awareness of thoughts and feelings to determine the goal (Bandura, 1991). Therefore, self-observation is nearly synonymous with self-awareness and goal-setting sub-scales. In our study, action planning is a unique concept that is defined as a stage after goal setting to create behavior (Ogden, 2019). Action planning is the process of transforming people’s strategies and goals into action (Gagné, 2018). In Bandura’s theory, judgment and self-response are also consistent with the self-monitoring subscale. Self-monitoring is a behavior change technique that includes the ability to monitor and regulate one’s emotions and behaviors in response to changes and problems (Bruhn et al., 2015). According to the evidence, other researchers have identified a variety of dimensions for SSRQ (Neal and Carey, 2005; Potgieter and Botha, 2009). This could be due to the diversity of researchers’ viewpoints and participants responses.

Regarding convergent validity, the GSE-10 for Iranian older adults demonstrated a positive and significant correlation with SSRQ total score and subscales, which displays the expected convergent validity. Convergent validity was not used in previous similar studies (Potgieter and Botha, 2009; Garzon Umerenkova et al., 2017; Chen and Lin, 2018). The reason for using the GSE-10 for convergent validity in our study was that it is a short scale that can be filled out more easily by old people and also is developed to measure self-beliefs to meet a variety of difficult situations (Lazić et al., 2021). Therefore, the contents of both scales pursue almost the same goal, which is to measure self-efficacy and self-regulation as Bandura’s significant constructs for predicting behavior to improve self-care (Luszczynska et al., 2005; Pillay et al., 2022).

According to the results, the “mode” score is an optimal cutoff point for the SSRQ-20. Therefore, people who scored higher than 71 have better self-regulatory behavior, and those who scored below indicate poor self-regulatiory behavior. It should be noted that the cutting point of the SSRQ has not been identified in previous studies, hence this is one of the highlights of the present study.

In the Iranian context, the short version of the SSRQ with 20 items demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties and a good factor structure for measuring self-regulation in older adults. Due to features such as good reliability and validity, the design of subscales based on the self-regulatory theory, on filling of the forms in a short period of time by older adults, and the determination of the cutoff point, it seems that the SSRQ-20 is a suitable tool for planners to use in designing interventions aimed at improving self-regulation in older adults.

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Science (Ref. no: IR.SUMS.REC.1398.1365). The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

MK conceptualized the study project, supervised the implementation process, and edited the manuscript. MM-J participated in study development, data collection, data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. AM contributed to data collection and edited the manuscript. AA helped in data analysis and edited the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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