Validation of the Italian Translation of the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale

Abstract

Objectives: Assessing mindfulness skills is an important topic for the mindfulness research community around the world. Having a variety of mindfulness measures validated in different languages would increase the quality of research on the topic. Thus, we propose a contribution to the validation of the Italian version of the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS) and its relatively short form, including only 10 out of the original 20 items. We also study its relationships with other psychological measures, and how it relates to meditation experience. Methods: We translated the original scale into Italian and then assessed its psychometric properties in two convenience samples of healthy participants from the general population (total n = 429). We analyzed the validity and the dimensionality of the scale (study 1 and 2), its construct validity and relationships with other psychological measures (study 3), and then how it relates to meditation experience (study 4). Results: An exploratory factor analysis (study 1) on sample 1 confirmed the original PHLMS structure, indicating two orthogonal dimensions named awareness and acceptance. A successive confirmatory factor analysis (study 2) on sample 2 also revealed a good fit of the model for the two-factor structure with correlated error. The short form also revealed a good model fit. In the successive studies conducted on a pooled sample including both sample 1 and 2, we confirmed the predominant role of acceptance in determining psychological well-being (study 3) and that meditation experience was related to increased mindfulness skills (study 4). Conclusions: The results support both the long and short forms of the Italian PHMLS (PHLMS-I) as valid and reliable instruments for measuring mindfulness skills in non-meditative and meditative samples.