Measuring Mindfulness Facets with FFMQ

The 39-item FFMQ (Baer et al., 2006 (link)) measures the trait-like tendency to be mindful in daily life. It is comprised of the following five related facets: observing, describing, acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity. Sample items include: “I notice the smells and aromas of things” (observing), “I’m good at finding words to describe my feelings” (describing), “I find myself doing things without paying attention” (acting with awareness), “I disapprove of myself when I have illogical ideas” (nonjudging), and “When I have distressing thoughts or images, I do not let myself be carried away by them” (nonreactivity). Facet scores range from 8−40, with the exception of the nonreactivity facet, which ranges from 7−35. The 15-item FFMQ (Baer et al., 2012 (link)) includes the following items of the FFMQ-39 for each of the five facets: Items 6, 11, and 15 for observing, Items 2, 16, and 27 for describing, Items 8, 34, and 38 for acting with awareness, Items 10, 14, and 30 for nonjudging, and Items 19, 29, and 33 for nonreactivity. These items were selected by Baer et al. (2012) (link) based on their factor loadings and to maintain the range of content for each facet. The FFMQ-15 is measured using the same scale as the FFMQ-39 and its facet scores range from 3−15. In the current study, only the FFMQ-39 was administered to participants; FFMQ-15 data were extracted from the 39-item version. Cronbach’s alphas for facets from both versions of the measure are displayed in Table 1.