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Measuring Trait Mindfulness: How to Improve the Precision of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Using a Rasch Model

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Abstract

The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) is the most widely used mindfulness scale to date, with validation studies indicating acceptable reliability and convergent validity. However, recent evidence indicates that the ability of the MAAS items to precisely discriminate between mindfulness levels is compromised. To improve item functioning and precision of the MAAS, responses of 250 participants to the scale were subjected to Rasch analysis. To improve disordered thresholds, items were re-scored, and each item was tested for Differential Item Functioning. Where misfit to Rasch model expectations was identified, items were removed and the effect on individual item-fit estimates was tested. Uniform rescoring of all items was the best solution to order thresholds of all items and to improve overall goodness of fit to the Rasch model. Satisfactory model fit was achieved after removing the misfitting items 6 and 15 and combining the locally dependent items 7 and 8. Functioning of MAAS items can be improved substantially by several minor modifications to scoring algorithms without the need to modify the current response format. Precision of the instrument can be improved further by using the ordinal-to-interval conversion tables presented here.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Jason Landon and Penny Neave for helping with data collection. This study is a part of doctoral work of the first author funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship of the Auckland University of Technology. This article was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant (NRF-2010-361-A00008) funded by the Korean Government (MEST).

Compliance with Ethical Standards

We declare that we have no conflicts of interest in connection with this paper. The study was conducted in compliance with the guidelines of the Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health & Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, North Shore Campus, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Oleg N. Medvedev, Richard J. Siegert, Xuan Joanna Feng, D. Rex Billington & Christian U. Krägeloh

  2. Institute of Mind Humanities, Wonkwang University, Iksan, South Korea

    Jin Young Jang

Authors
  1. Oleg N. Medvedev
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  2. Richard J. Siegert
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  3. Xuan Joanna Feng
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  4. D. Rex Billington
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  5. Jin Young Jang
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  6. Christian U. Krägeloh
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Oleg N. Medvedev or Christian U. Krägeloh.

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Medvedev, O.N., Siegert, R.J., Feng, X.J. et al. Measuring Trait Mindfulness: How to Improve the Precision of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Using a Rasch Model. Mindfulness 7, 384–395 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0454-z

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