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The Impermanence Awareness and Acceptance Scale

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Abstract

Objectives

This research offers an operationalization of the construct impermanence, a scale to measure it, and an exploration of its relationship to mental health. The 13-item Impermanence Awareness and Acceptance Scale (IMAAS) was created to measure two factors: (1) impermanence awareness, the cognizance that all phenomena are transient, and (2) impermanence acceptance, an attitude of openness towards the transient nature of all phenomena.

Methods

Exploratory factor analysis (Study 1), confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2), and convergent and discriminant validity analyses (Study 3) were conducted. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The common latent factor method was used to identify potential common factors and response biases. Configural and metric invariance test was used to validate the factor structure.

Results

Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good model fit of a 2-factor structure for the IMAAS into impermanence awareness and acceptance (GFI = 0.95, CFI = 0.97; TLI = 0.96; NFI = 0.94; RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.43). The IMAAS showed good convergent validity with similar constructs such as death acceptance and good discriminant validity with related but different constructs such as mindfulness. Impermanence awareness and acceptance were positively correlated to psychological well-being.

Conclusions

The IMAAS is proposed as a valid tool to assess changes in impermanence awareness and acceptance. More studies are needed to validate the IMAAS across diverse cross-cultural samples and to explore its relationship to well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nirakara Lab, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Silvia Fernández-Campos & Pablo Roca

  2. School of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pablo Roca

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Mary Bit Yaden

Authors
  1. Silvia Fernández-Campos
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  2. Pablo Roca
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  3. Mary Bit Yaden
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Contributions

SFC designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. PR analyzed the data, wrote the results, and assisted in editing the manuscript. MBY collaborated with the design and in editing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Fernández-Campos.

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The study received an ethics approval from the Nirakara Lab at the Complutense University of Madrid.

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Participants provided informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Fernández-Campos, S., Roca, P. & Yaden, M.B. The Impermanence Awareness and Acceptance Scale. Mindfulness 12, 1542–1554 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01623-7

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