A psychometric validation of contextual cognitive behavioral therapy-informed measures with racially and ethnically diverse adults

The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Engaged Living Scale (ELS), and Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) are three commonly used contextual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-informed self-report questionnaires. The present study aimed to psychometrically validate these three scales with racially and ethnically diverse adults in Hawaiʻi (N = 1102). Using a cross-validation strategy with an iterative process of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, findings revealed that factor structures of the FFMQ, ELS, and AAQ-II were theoretically consistent with extant literature. However, we also found slight factorial structure differences in the present sample, which may have practical implications when assessing these constructs within racially and ethnically diverse adults. Evidence of reliability, convergent validity, and measurement invariance of these scales are also provided. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.