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Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

FFMQ
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

A 39-item measure of trait mindfulness across five facets: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity.

Items
39
Response format
5-point Likert
Version
1.0
Subscales
5

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Trait mindfulness was measured with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al., 2006), whose five facet subscales showed good-to-excellent internal consistency (α ≈ .75–.91).

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Community and student samples (Baer et al., 2006)
Cronbach's α
0.75–0.91

Subscales

ObservingDescribingActing with AwarenessNon-Judging of Inner ExperienceNon-Reactivity to Inner Experience

Response anchors

Never or very rarely true · Rarely true · Sometimes true · Often true · Very often or always true

Known limitations

The Observing facet behaves differently in non-meditating samples and can correlate with maladaptive outcomes, complicating total-score interpretation.

Original citation

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.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191105283504

Questions researchers ask

What does the FFMQ measure?

A 39-item measure of trait mindfulness across five facets: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity.

How many items does the FFMQ have?

The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) has 39 items across 5 subscales: Observing, Describing, Acting with Awareness, Non-Judging of Inner Experience, Non-Reactivity to Inner Experience.

Is the FFMQ free to use?

The FFMQ is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the FFMQ reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.75–0.91. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the FFMQ, and how do I cite it?

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. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191105283504

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.