Abstract
Objectives
Mindfulness has been conceptualized as intentionally paying attention to the present moment without judgment. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is one of the most popular measures to assess trait mindfulness. The accurate assessment of mindfulness dispositions is essential for both clinical and research purposes. However, there is limited evidence regarding the psychometric properties of the FFMQ in Argentinian samples. The present study aimed to examine reliability and structural and concurrent validity of the Spanish version of the FFMQ in a sample of Argentinian college students.
Methods
A sample of 632 students (69% women; Mage = 24.47, SD = 5.76) enrolled at five public universities in Argentina completed an online survey that assessed mindfulness-related traits (Observing, Describing, Acting with Awareness, Nonjudging of Inner Experience, and Nonreactivity to Inner Experience), emotion-regulation strategies, facets of anxiety sensibility, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Results
FFMQ subscales exhibited adequate internal consistency values (α between 0.77 and 0.89; ω between 0.79 and 0.89). An intercorrelated 5-factor model structure showed acceptable fit to the data. The findings also supported configural, metric and scalar invariance across sex and levels of mindfulness experience. The FFMQ demonstrated sensitivity to discriminate participants with vs. without mindfulness experience. We also observed significant correlations between mindfulness dimensions and theoretically-related variables.
Conclusions
The present findings support the reliability and validity of FFMQ scores among Argentinian college students. This evidence supports the use of the FFMQ as an appropriate instrument for assessing dispositional mindfulness in Argentinian college students.
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Data Availability
Data are available from the corresponding author on request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all the college students that completed the online survey. The authors also grateful to Gianpiero Pacini, Paula Aguirre, Hannah Buteler Cifuentes and Facundo Quiroga, for their invaluable contribution in collecting the data.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Secretary of Science and Technology (FONCYT, grant number #PICT 2018–3170) to Angelina Pilatti, by grants from the Secretary of Science and Technology- National University of Córdoba (SECyT-UNC) to Angelina Pilatti and Yanina Michelini. This work was also supported by National Council on Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina). CONICET, FONCyT and SECyT-UNC had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
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Pablo Correa: Data Management, Formal Analysis, Writing-Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization; Yanina Michelini: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Review & Editing, Supervision, Project Administration; Adrian J. Bravo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Review & Editing, Supervision; Laura Mezquita: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Review & Editing, Supervision; Angelina Pilatti: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data Management, Formal analysis, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition.
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Correa, P., Michelini, Y., Bravo, A.J. et al. Validation of the Spanish Version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in a Sample of Argentinian College Students. Mindfulness 14, 1479–1492 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02152-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02152-1