Item Response Theory Analysis of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and Its Short Forms
Open accessAbstract
Objectives The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is a self-report measure of mindfulness with forms of several different lengths, including the FFMQ-39, FFMQ-24, and FFMQ-15. We use item response theory analysis to directly compare the functioning of these three forms.Methods Data were drawn from a non-clinical Amazon Mechanical Turk study (N = 522) and studies of aftercare treatment of individuals with substance use disorders (combined N = 454). The item and test functioning of the three FFMQ forms were studied and compared.Results All 39 items were strongly related to the facet latent variables, and the items discriminated over a similar range of the latent mindfulness constructs. Items provided more information in the low to medium range of latent mindfulness than in the high range. Scores in three of the five FFMQ-39 facets were unreliable when measuring individuals in the high range of latent mindfulness, resulting from ceiling effects in item responses. Reliability in the high range of mindfulness was further reduced in the FFMQ-24 and FFMQ-15, such that short forms may be ill-suited for applications that require reliable measurement in the high range.Conclusions Results suggest the existing FFMQ item pool cannot be reduced without negatively affecting either overall reliability or the span of mindfulness over which reliability is assessed. Conditional test reliability curves and item functioning parameters can aid investigators in tailoring their choice of FFMQ form to the reliability they hope to achieve and to the range of latent mindfulness over which they must reliably measure.
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After 4 weeks of MD, the current sample reported total and subscale mindfulness scores similar to mean scores of general population samples, except for the acting with awareness subscale.
“After 4 weeks of MD, the current sample reported total and subscale mindfulness scores that were similar to the mean scores of general population samples, except for the acting with awareness subscale (37, 38).”
From Trait mindfulness and personality characteristics in a microdosing ADHD sample: a naturalistic prospective survey study (2023) · cites this paper as [37]
The Method (Participants and Measures; page unavailable) describes a nonclinical MTurk sample and says Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for its FFMQ items, which could serve as a comparison. Our copy does not establish total and subscale mean scores for a general-population sample or the stated exception for acting with awareness. The four-week MD result belongs to the citing study, not this source. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSerious concerns have been raised about the validity of self-report measures of mindfulness because their factor structures and item functioning differ between populations, time points, and studies.
“Serious concerns have been raised about the validity of self-report measures of mindfulness in particular because their factor structures and item functioning have been shown to be different between populations, e.g., high trait mindfulness individuals versus low trait mindfulness individuals with the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) (Pelham et al., 2019), between time points with the”
From Dismantling Mindfulness-Based Programs: a Systematic Review to Identify Active Components of Treatment (2020) · cites this paper as Pelham et al., 2019
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- Authors
- Pelham III, W. E., Gonzalez, O., Metcalf, S. A., Whicker, C. L., Scherer, E. A., Witkiewitz, K., Marsch, L. A., & Mackinnon, D. P.
- Affiliations
- Dartmouth College (US)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Mindfulness
- Published
- 2019-03-02
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1615-1628
- ISSN
- 1868-8527 (ISSN-L)
- 1868-8535
- PMC
- PMC6823990
- OpenAlex
- W2919332816
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Mindfulness (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (UH2 DA041713, P30 DA029926, R37 DA009757, R21 DA010562, R01 DA025764)
- National Science Foundation (DGE-1311230)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (F31 AA026768)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Keywords
- Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, mindfulness measurement, short form, item functioning, test reliability, ceiling effect, item response theory
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