The Spanish Version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS): Measurement invariance and psychometric properties

Abstract

We examined the measurement invariance and psychometric properties of a Spanish-language version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in a U.S. sample. A total of 609 undergraduate students, including 325 bilingual (Spanish-speaking) participants, from a Hispanic-majority institution completed the assessment battery and were included in the analyses. The MAAS and the Spanish-language Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS-SP) were shown to be equivalent via multigroup confirmatory factor analysis models testing configural, metric, and scalar invariance. A test of latent mean differences indicated a small, but statistically significant cross-language difference in trait mindfulness as construed by the MAAS, as the latent mean of the MAAS-SP was slightly higher compared with the latent mean of the MAAS. The MAAS-SP evidenced good psychometric properties and concurrent validity. Taken together, findings support the reliability and validity of the MAAS and MAAS-SP in measuring mindfulness across languages. Future studies could continue efforts aimed at examining the structure of mindfulness and its facets across languages.