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Abstract
Background: The five facets mindfulness questionnaire-short form (FFMQ-SF) is a new, brief measure for the assessment of mindfulness skills in clinical and nonclinical samples. The construct validity of the FFMQ-SF has not been previously assessed in community samples.
Aims: The present study investigated the factor structure of the Italian version of the FFMQ-SF.
Method: Structured equation modeling was used to test the fit of three alternative models in a sample of highly educated adults (n = 211).
Results: A hierarchical model with a single second-order factor loaded by observing, describing, and acting with awareness (i.e. the mindfulness “what” skills) performed slightly better than both a five-factor model with correlated factors and a hierarchical model with a general second-order factor. The FFMQ-SF scores were significantly higher than those reported in both Dutch depressed patients and Australian undergraduate students for all facets (but nonreactivity for the Australian sample).
Conclusions: Data support the multifaceted nature of mindfulness skills. Because of its brevity and simplicity of use, the FFMQ-SF is a promising questionnaire in longitudinal and clinical research. This questionnaire can serve as a guideline to help clinicians assess and monitor mindfulness skills acquisition, strengthening, and generalization, and prioritize mindfulness skills that need immediate attention.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Erika Graci and Sara Pompili for their essential contribution in data collection. We are grateful to Professor Cesare Maffei for critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Francesco Florenzano and Upter’s staff to allow and facilitate the data collection.
Declaration of interest
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.