Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire - Short Form (FFMQ-SF)
What it is
The FFMQ-SF is a 15-item self-report questionnaire measuring mindfulness across five core dimensions. It is a shortened version of the original 39-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-39), developed by Baer and colleagues. Items were selected from the long form based on their factor loadings, ensuring the short form retains the structural integrity and breadth of the original.
The FFMQ-SF is well suited to routine clinical use, research settings where assessment burden needs to be minimised, and monitoring of mindfulness-based interventions such as MBCT or MBSR.
How is it used
- Suitable for adults and young people aged 16 and over
- Takes approximately 5–10 minutes to complete
- Measures mindfulness as a dispositional trait (how the individual generally tends to be in daily life)
- Commonly used before and after mindfulness-based interventions to assess change
- Total scores can be monitored over time; individual facet scores provide more targeted information
The five facets assessed are:
- Observing — noticing and attending to internal and external experiences
- Describing — labelling experiences with words
- Acting with awareness — attending to present-moment activity rather than operating on autopilot
- Non-judging of inner experience — taking a non-evaluative stance toward thoughts and feelings
- Non-reactivity to inner experience — allowing thoughts and feelings to arise without getting caught up in them
What do the scores mean?
Each item is rated on a five-point scale from 1 (never or very rarely true) to 5 (very often or always true). Subscale scores are calculated by summing the three items for each facet; some items are reverse scored. A total score can also be calculated by summing all five subscales.
Higher scores indicate greater mindfulness. There are no established clinical cut-off scores — the FFMQ-SF is primarily used to track change over time and compare scores relative to normative data.
Important note for use with mindfulness interventions: Research (Gu et al., 2016) found that the factor structure of the Observing subscale differs before and after MBCT — a four-factor structure (excluding Observing) provides a better fit pre-treatment. It is therefore recommended that the Observing subscale is excluded from comparisons of total scores before and after mindfulness-based interventions.
Developer
The original FFMQ-39 was developed by Baer and colleagues (2006). The 15-item short form was developed by Baer, Carmody, and Hunsinger (2012), with the factor structure of the FFMQ-SF confirmed by Gu et al. (2016).
References:
Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Hopkins, J., Krietemeyer, J., & Toney, L. (2006). Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment, 13(1), 27–45.
Baer, R. A., Carmody, J., & Hunsinger, M. (2012). Weekly change in mindfulness and perceived stress in a mindfulness-based stress reduction program. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68(7), 755–765.
Gu, J., Strauss, C., Crane, C., Barnhofer, T., Karl, A., Cavanagh, K., & Kuyken, W. (2016). Examining the factor structure of the 39- and 15-item versions of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire before and after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for people with recurrent depression. Psychological Assessment, 28(7), 791–802.