Cross-cultural adaptation of the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) for Brazilian Portuguese and evidence of its validity

Abstract

Objective: To adapt the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) for the Brazilian context and present evidence of validity based on its internal structure. Methods: A total of 2,682 Brazilian adults from different regions of the country took part in this study. Confirmatory factor analyses and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA) were performed to assess the factor structure of the MWQ. McDonald’s omega (ω) was generated to provide reliability indexes. Results: The analyses demonstrated an adequate factor structure for the MWQ adapted to the Brazilian context, corroborating the original article’s single-factor model and other adaptation studies. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the instrument’s reliability in a Brazilian population (ω = 0.88). Conclusion: The MWQ is thus an adequate, reliable, and quickly administered instrument for those whose aim is to measure deliberate and spontaneous MW in Brazil.

Keywords

• Attention
• validation study
• mind-wandering