Swedish Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SAAQ): a psychometric evaluation

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance are linked to psychopathology.
• The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II) measures these concepts.
• A Swedish version (SAAQ) is needed for local research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the preliminary psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the AAQ-II (SAAQ).
• To validate the SAAQ for use in Swedish clinical research.

Main Methods:

• Principal component analysis of the 10-item AAQ-II (n=147).
• Reduction to a six-item version and investigation of its validity and internal consistency (n=154).
• Test-retest reliability assessed (r=0.80, n=228).

Main Results:

• The six-item SAAQ demonstrated good concurrent and convergent validity.
• Satisfactory internal consistency (α=0.85) and a strong single component structure were found.
• Test-retest reliability was satisfactory (r=0.80).

Conclusions:

• The SAAQ possesses satisfactory psychometric properties for measuring psychological inflexibility in Swedish contexts.
• Further research on predictive and external validity is recommended.
• The SAAQ is a promising tool for Swedish clinical research.