Measuring mindfulness: pilot studies with the Swedish versions of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale and the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills.
Erling Hansen, Lars‐gunnar Lundh, Anders Homman, Margit Wångby-Lundh
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 2009 DOI: 10.1080/16506070802383230 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pilot study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Swedish-speaking participants, including close relatives of persons with borderline personality disorder enrolled in the Family Connections programme, plus a comparison group |
| Measures | Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | The Swedish MAAS and the KIMS Act with Awareness and Accept without Judgment subscales correlated in the expected direction with well-being and emotional distress, while Observe and Describe showed ambiguous results the authors attribute to a possible mix of healthy self-observation and unhealthy rumination. In the uncontrolled Family Connections study, participants scored lower than a comparison group on Act with Awareness and Accept without Judgment before treatment and showed significantly increased Accept without Judgment scores after treatment. |
Abstract
The present article describes data from pilot studies with the Swedish versions of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS). The MAAS and two of the KIMS scales, Act with Awareness and Accept without Judgment, were found to correlate in the predicted direction with measures of well-being and emotional distress. The KIMS scales Observe and Describe showed more ambiguous results, possibly because these two scales measure a mixture of two opposite kinds of processes: healthy self-observation ("experiential self-focus") and unhealthy rumination ("analytical self-focus"). The KIMS was also used in an uncontrolled study with participants in an educational programme for close relatives of persons with borderline personality disorder, Family Connections (FC), which includes components of mindfulness training. The FC participants were found to (a) score lower than a comparison group on Act with Awareness and Accept without Judgment before treatment and (b) show significantly increased scores on Accept without Judgment after treatment.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- Mindfulness Promotes a More Balanced Time Perspective: Correlational and Intervention-Based Evidence Mindfulness February 22, 2019
- Appliance of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Pilot Study Journal of Neurotherapy April 1, 2011
- Measurement Invariance of the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale among Youths across Five Samples Preprints.org September 1, 2023
- Spanish validation of the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in parents of individuals with ASD Frontiers in Psychology September 23, 2026
- Perceived Stress Mediating the Association Between Mindfulness and Resilience Among Registered Nurses. Psychology Research and Behavior Management August 7, 2023
and 7 more in the library
Cites 7
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2003
- Assessment of Mindfulness by Self-Report Assessment September 1, 2004
- The toronto mindfulness scale: Development and validation Journal of Clinical Psychology 2006
and 2 more in the library