The Estonian Mindful Attention Awareness Scale: Assessing Mindfulness Without a Distinct Linguistic Present Tense

Abstract

The paucity of mindfulness-based interventions and research in Estonia motivated the development of an Estonian Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Unlike most languages, the Estonian language lacks a distinctive present tense. This provides a potential challenge for assessing mindfulness, a psychological construct characterized by present-moment awareness. We outline the process of overcoming linguistic differences during translation. The Estonian MAAS showed a single-factor structure and strong internal consistency. A cross-cultural comparison showed factorial invariance between the Estonian and the original scale. In an Estonian adult student sample, MAAS scores were invariant across genders and education levels, positively related to subjective well-being and self-esteem and inversely related to public self-consciousness and social anxiety. Item response theory analyses (IRT) revealed seven items of the Estonian version carrying most of the information load. We discuss how translating the MAAS into a unique linguistic context could inform an understanding of mindfulness itself.

Associations between Leisure Preferences, Mindfulness, Psychological Capital, and Life Satisfaction

“…Please answer according to what reflects your experience rather than what you think your experience should be”. The MAAS has been validated across multiple samples, evidencing good psychometric properties [ 75 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 ].…”

Validity Evidence of the Spanish Version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale Using the Rasch Measurement Model

“…The present study includes several limitations. First, as in earlier validation studies of the MAAS (Goh et al, 2017; Jensen et al, 2016; Johnson et al, 2014; Osman et al, 2016; Seema et al, 2015), data were gathered via an electronic survey. In general, findings from online surveys are consistent with those obtained using traditional methods (Gosling et al, 2004).…”

“…The MAAS has been demonstrated to be invariant across clinical and nonclinical populations (Carlson & Brown, 2005), age (Medvedev et al, 2016; Smith et al, 2017), gender (Black et al, 2012; Smith et al, 2017), and cultures (Ghorbani et al, 2009; Johnson et al, 2014; Seema et al, 2015). But, likely, the measurement invariance of the MAAS across meditators and nonmeditators is the major cause for concern among researchers.…”