Psychometric Validation of the Toronto Mindfulness Scale – Trait Version in Chinese College Students

Abstract

The Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS; Lau et al., 2006) has been widely used to assess the state mindfulness of participants after practicing mindfulness. Recently, a trait version of the Toronto Mindfulness Scale was developed and initially validated (TMS-T; Davis et al., 2009). We further examined the psychometric properties of TMS-T using three hundred and sixty-eight Chinese college students (233 females and 135 males) from a public university in Hong Kong. We found that factor analyses failed to support the existence of two-dimensional structure of the Chinese version of the TMS-T (C-TMS-T). The model fit indices indicated a marginal model fit, and the concurrent and convergent validities of the C-TMS-T were not confirmed. The moderate item-to-subscale fit of the decentering subscale indicated that its structural validity was not satisfactory. In addition, the internal consistency coefficient of the decentering subscale using composite reliability (p = .61) was under the acceptable level. Based on the results, we concluded that the application of the C-TMS-T to the Chinese population is premature. Further validation of the C-TMS-T using another sample of participants is recommended, in particular, individuals with meditation experiences.