Assessment of psychological (in)flexibility in the Portuguese population: Validation of the brief version of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI-24)

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Carina
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Cunha, Marina, Massano-Cardoso, Ilda, Galhardo, Ana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.31211/rpics.2023.9.1.285
• topic: Psychological Flexibility; Psychological inflexibility; Assessment; Factor structure; Psychometric validation; Quantitative study; Flexibilidade Psicológica; Inflexibilidade psicológica; Avaliação; Estrutura fatorial; Validação psicométrica; Estudo quantitativo

Objective: Translation and validation of the brief version of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI-24) for the Portuguese population. Methods: The sample consisted of 650 participants aged between 18 and 74 years. Participants completed an online protocol consisting of a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory-24 (MPFI-24), the Psy-Flex, the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), and the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis of the MPFI-24 showed the plausibility of the two-factor higher-order model with six first-order Psychological Flexibility (PF) factors and six first-order Psychological Inflexibility (PI) factors. The MPFI-24 showed adequate reliability, with alpha values greater than .70 on the overall indices and on all factors. It also showed good temporal stability. The PF showed a positive association with psychological flexibility, as assessed by Psy-Flex, and with the perception of mental health (MHC-SF) and a negative association with negative emotional states (PHQ-4). PI revealed the opposite pattern, with all correlations being moderate and significant. Age showed a positive association with FP and a negative association with PI. No gender differences were found for the two global indicators. Conclusions: The MPFI-24 proved to be a valid and reliable inventory to assess PF and PI in adults from the Portuguese population. This instrument can be used in clinical and research contexts and can be a relevant contribution to the design of interventions aimed at increasing psychological flexibility.