Development of the Six Factors Mindfulness Scale

Abstract

A new scale for measuring components of mindfulness was developed and its reliability and validity were evaluated. Undergraduate and graduate students (N478) participated by responding to a 72-item pilot scale. eir responses were psychometrically evaluated by conducting exploratory and connrmatory factor analyses. e resulting 31-item measure was named the Six Factors Mindfulness Scale (SFMS), which included the following subscales: Nonduality, Describing, Acceptance and Nonreactivity, Objective observing, Awareness, and Being in the moment. e SFMS had good internal consistency and suucient, 2-week test-retest reliability. Nearly all sub-scales of SFMS were adequately correlated with several theoretically related scales. We also examined relationships between mental health scores and SFMS factor scores. Results indicated that high awareness with low acceptance resulted in poor mental health, which supported the ndings of previous research, and suggested the validity of the scale. It is concluded that the SFMS is a useful, multidimensional measure for assessing mindfulness.