Interpersonal Mindfulness Questionnaire: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Objectives Previously developed mindfulness measures focused on its intrapersonal dimensions and did not measure the interpersonal aspects of mindfulness. Furthermore, recently developed interpersonal mindfulness measures were either specific to a certain context (e.g., parenting, conjugal, teaching) or omitted/minimized the role of the body in the interpersonal dynamic. The proposed Interpersonal Mindfulness Questionnaire (IMQ) aims to operationalize the theoretical notion of embodied and embedded mindfulness by grounding it into four dimensions, each representing a set of skills that can be cultivated through training and practice: (1) Detachment from the Mind, (2) Body-Anchored Presence, (3) Attention to and Awareness of the Other Person, and (4) Mindful Responding. Methods The IMQ subscales were developed through consultations with a panel of eight graduate students and ten experts in the field. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the construct, internal consistency, reliability, convergent validity, and utility of the IMQ. Results Findings from the three studies supported the proposed four subscales of IMQ and suggested that these four subscales are independent and supported by convergent evidence. In addition, results suggested that IMQ subscales’ scores are sensitive to meditation experience and are associated with better intrapersonal and interpersonal outcomes. Conclusions IMQ subscales are valid and are consistent with the proposed embodied and embedded conception of interpersonal mindfulness. IMQ subscales are associated with intrapersonal mindfulness, but not strongly enough to be conceived as the same phenomenon. Limitations, as well as theoretical and practical implications of IMQ subscales, are thoroughly discussed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-01855-1.

Tri-process model of interpersonal mindfulness: theoretical framework and study protocol

“…In addition, the effects of the training on the SPs' interpersonal mindfulness skills will be assessed using our recently developed and validated measure of interpersonal mindfulness, Interpersonal Mindfulness Questionnaire (IMQ; Khoury et al, 2022), which is based on Varela's work (Varela et al, 1991(Varela et al, , 2016 and the theory of embodiment (Khoury et al, 2017(Khoury et al, , 2019(Khoury et al, , 2020Khoury, 2018) and include four sets of global trainable skills (detachment from automatic thoughts, body anchored presence, attention to and awareness of the other person, and empathic responding; Khoury et al, 2023). These skills were shown to highly relate to interpersonal functioning and were sensitive to meditation practice or mindfulness training (Khoury et al, 2022).…”