Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Lilya Jiang

Committee Member

Idia Thurston

Committee Member

Randy Floyd

Committee Member

Joyce Jiang

Abstract

With a growing interest in understanding ways to increase optimal functioning in humans, a relatively novel concept mindful self-care gained research attention in the past few years. Mindful self-care is a combination of the active evaluation of internal needs and external demands and intentional engagement in self-care practices. Although initial evidence was reported in the development and validation study of the Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS, Cook-Cottone & Guyker, 2018), there were some notable limitations, including the wide age range of the sample (i.e., ages 18-71 years) and a lack of evidence to confirm criterion validity and invariance across men and women. To further validate the MSCS, the current study focused on examining gender invariance and criterion validity in emerging adults using a sample of college students (N = 912; ages 18 to 23). Based on the CFAs, four items were deemed questionable and removed from the MSCS. Using the remaining items, the original six factor structure was supported in the final CFA model. Multigroup CFA results supported full metric invariance, suggesting that the factor structures and the loadings of each item on the MSCS was equivalent across gender groups. Partial scalar invariance was also achieved across gender groups, suggesting that the meaning of mindful self-care is equivalent across these two groups, and that most factor loadings and item intercepts are equal across groups. A latent mean analysis showed the mean levels of men and women reports significantly differed across two subscales on the MSCS, Physical Care and Mindful Awareness. Men demonstrated higher latent means than woman. The internal consistency () of the revised MSCS was .91. Criterion validity of the MSCS was supported by the weak to moderate positive relations with satisfaction with life, and the weak inverse relations with the measures of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Taken together, the findings suggested a modified MSCS is a reliable and valid tool to measure mindful self-care across emerging adult men and women. Implications and future directions, including further investigation of non-variant items and additional demographic characteristics, are discussed.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

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