State Mindfulness Scale (SMS)

Abstract

The Satipatṭhāna Sutta describes mindfulness as a mental state characterized by the objects of mindful awareness (i.e., what experience a person attends to) and mental qualities of that mindful awareness (i.e., how a person attends to experience). In contemporary psychology, mindfulness is often similarly conceptualized as a trait or a state characterized by two components: attention of physical/bodily and mental present moment experience (i.e., what experience a person attends to) and a mental attitude characterized by curiosity and acceptance of present moment experience (i.e., how a person attends to experience) (Bishop et al., 2004; Lindsay & Creswell, 2017). Integrating these canonical and contemporary theoretical perspectives, Tanay and Bernstein (2013) developed the State Mindfulness Scale (SMS). The SMS is a 21-item self-report measure designed to assess state mindfulness. More specifically, the SMS is designed to quantify subjective levels of present moment attention to and awareness of two domains of experiential events or objects of which one may be mindful, bodily sensations and mental events, during a specific period of time (e.g., past 15 minutes) and context (e.g., mindfulness meditation or other activity). In this chapter, we review the theoretical foundations, development, initial validation and subsequent psychometric study of the SMS. We also describe the SMS administration and scoring, and briefly, the limitations and possible next steps for the psychometric study of the SMS and the measurement of state mindfulness more broadly.

The Efficacy of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention for College Students Under Extremely Stressful Conditions

“…The SMS aims to quantify perceived levels of awareness of physical sensations (body) and mental events (mind). The scale typically invites participants to rate their perceived awareness level during a specific period of time (Ruimi et al, 2019). We instructed students to consider the last 15 min when answering the questions.…”

Influence of Passive Haptic and Auditory Feedback on Presence and Mindfulness in Virtual Reality Environments

“…what experience a person focuses on, including physical sensations and mental events) and the qualities of mindful awareness (i.e. how a person attends to experience, including perceptual sensitivity to stimuli, deliberate attention, willingness to feel, curiosity) [60,75]. The 21-items, rated on a 5-point Likert scale, are split into two subscales that measure bodily sensations in the SMS-body subscale (maximal possible scoring = 24) and attention to and awareness of mental events (e.g.…”

“…curiosity, perceptual sensitivity to stimuli, acceptance of present moment experiences (i.e. how a person engages with experiences) [5,39,60].…”

Examining factors affecting youth value of mindful living in a short-term non-formal educational mindfulness program

“…Trait mindfulness looks at the development of mindfulness traits and characteristics in an individual over time, usually several weeks, while state mindfulness looks at one's experience of mindfulness during a short period of time, such as during a two-hour workshop (Tanay & Bernstein, 2013). Tanay and Bernstein's (2013) mindfulness model of state mindfulness (as cited in Ruimi, et al, 2019) (see Figure 1) served as part of the theoretical framework to measure state mindfulness in the study. Tanay and Bernstein (2013) created the State Mindfulness Scale (SMS) to measure physical sensations and mental events in adults during a short-term mindfulness program.…”