Psychometric Properties of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure: A Psychological Measure of Mindfulness in Youth

Although there are a number of acceptable means of measuring mindfulness for adults, this is not the case with the child and adolescent population. A requirement, therefore, is to establish and evaluate the child and adolescent mindfulness tools, such as the child and adolescent mindfulness measure (CAMM).

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of a Persian version of the CAMM.

This descriptive research involved a sample of 620 students aged 12 to 18 years in Kashan who were selected via cluster sampling in 2017. The participants completed the Persian CAMM, the eight-item Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y8), the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale for Adolescents (MAAS-A), the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). The factor structure of the Persian CAMM was evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses by separate samples. Test-retest reliability (with four-week interval and 50 participants), internal consistency, and convergent and divergent validities were also determined.

The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed that the one-factor (original) model of the CAMM did not meet the goodness of fit indexes. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA, n = 300) indicated that the Persian CAMM had a two-factor structure and the CFA verified the acceptable fit of the two-factor scale. The instrument also exhibited good reliability (α =0.73). The correlation between CAMM and anxiety, depression, and psychological inflexibility was negative, whereas its correlation with the MAAS-A was positive (P < 0.001).

Based on the results of this study, the Persian CAMM is an appropriate tool with acceptable psychometric properties for measuring adolescent mindfulness. Mindfulness can be considered an important protective construct in the mental health of children and adolescents.