Mindfulness Awareness-Attention Scale: A five items version

Abstract

The goal of this research was to develop a short form of the Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale by selecting five items. A total of 329 students (41 men and 288 women) took part in this study. First of all, we examine the factorial validity of the whole scale (15 items), then taking into account the factor loadings, corrected item-test correlation, Cronbach´s alpha and the theoretical importance, we selected the items for the shorter version. Next we analyzed the factorial validity of the short form. Then, to evaluate the agreement of both versions, we computed the Pearson correlation and the Gower index. Also, we compared the predictive accuracy of the short and the long form score by estimating a structural equation model (SEM) where mindfulness had an effect on autonomy (feelings of choice and will) and self-esteem. Fit indexes showed adequate values for the long and the short form. Cronbach´s alpha for the long form was .854 and for the short .837. Pearson correlation and Gower index between the mean of 15 items and the mean of the 5 items short version was r = .884 and.926, respectively. As for the SEM, for the long form, the standardized effect of mindfulness on autonomy was .164, and on self-esteem was .235, while for the short version it was .175 and .208. In conclusion, this short form can be used as a rough proxy for the original version.