Emotion regulation refers to all the processes involved in adapting to relatively strong emotional episodes, and specifically to identifying, differentiating and monitoring intense emotional states in order to cope with stressful situations. Difficulties in regulating emotions are associated with problems such as depression, anxiety and maladaptive behaviors. The DERS (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) is the most complete tool for measuring difficulties with emotion regulation. Several brief versions of this scale in English are described in the literature, but no a brief Spanish version has been found. The purpose of this study is to validate a brief version of the DERS in Spanish. The DERS tool was used with a Spanish speaking population (n=351, inhabitants of Cartagena, Colombia, 56% were woman, Mage 39 years, SD = 14.98) who responded the 5-point Likert scale. The brief version (18 items) was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (X2 / df = 1.19, CFI= .99, TLI = .99, RMSEA=.02). However, neither the reliability nor the stability of the awareness dimension was confirmed. This point and other results are examined on the light of extant literature.