Concepedia

Assessment of Mindfulness by Self-Report

Ruth A. Baer, Gregory T. Smith, Kristin B. Allen

Assessment · 2004 · 2.3K citations · 41 references

TL;DR

Four mindfulness skills—observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment—were specified based on current literature. The study developed a self‑report inventory for assessing these skills and examined its psychometric characteristics and relationships with other constructs. The authors created the inventory, evaluated its psychometric properties, and tested it in three undergraduate samples and an outpatient sample with borderline personality disorder. The inventory showed good internal consistency, test‑retest reliability, a clear factor structure, and significant relationships with other constructs, indicating that mindfulness skills are differentially related to personality and mental‑health aspects such as neuroticism, psychological symptoms, emotional intelligence, alexithymia, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and absorption.

Abstract

A self-report inventory for the assessment of mindfulness skills was developed, and its psychometric characteristics and relationships with other constructs were examined. Participants included three samples of undergraduate students and a sample of outpatients with borderline personality disorder. Based on discussions of mindfulness in the current literature, four mindfulness skills were specified: observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgment. Scales designed to measure each skill were developed and evaluated. Results showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and a clear factor structure. Most expected relationships with other constructs were significant. Findings suggest that mindfulness skills are differentially related to aspects of personality and mental health, including neuroticism, psychological symptoms, emotional intelligence, alexithymia, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and absorption.