Mind-full to mindful: The psychometric journey

Pages: 101-104
Mira Talathi and R.S. Mhaske (Department of Psychology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra)

Mindfulness research is progressing with lightening speed covering various areas and involving all the age groups. Present article addresses methodological challenges in mindfulness research. Capturing mindfulness experience, research designs, issue of double blind experiments, inadequate descriptions of interventions, and planning and execution of interventions are special concerns. Attention is given to instruments measuring mindfulness focusing on self report measures, operational definition and validity of instruments in Indian context. Present article is two-fold. In second part, the researcher has focused upon mindfulness in adolescents. Researcher has observed changes in mindfulness among novice adolescent girls after practicing mindfulness meditation intervention. MMI is a guided audio-taped intervention designed by Jon Kabat Zinn (2012) and mindfulness is measured by Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown et al., 2011) designed specifically for adolescents. Surprisingly, it was found that mindfulness has reduced as a result of practicing MMI. Results are discussed in detail along with limitation and guidelines for future research. Research findings highlight need for better assessment techniques for mindfulness especially in Indian context.