Translation and validation of the Mind-Wandering Test for Spanish adolescents

Working memory capacity and fluent intelligence influence cognitive capacity as a predictive value of success. In line with this, one matter appears, that of mind wandering, which partly explains the variability in the results obtained from the subjects who do these tests. A recently developed measure to evaluate this phenomenon is the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ).

The objective of this work was to translate into Spanish the MWQ for its use with adolescents and to validate it and to analyze its relation with these values: self-esteem, dispositional mindfulness, satisfaction with life, happiness, and positive and negative affects.

A sample of 543 secondary students: 270 males (49.72%) and 273 females (50.28%) were used, who completed the questionnaire, and also did tests of self-esteem, dispositional mindfulness, satisfaction with life, happiness, and positive and negative effects. The transcultural adaptation process followed these steps: translation, back translation, evaluation of translations by a panel of judges, and testing the final version.

Validity analyses were done of the construct (% explained variance = 52.1), and internal consistency was high (α = .766). The coefficients of correlation with the self-esteem, MASS, satisfaction with life, happiness, and affects scales confirmed the questionnaire's validity, and a multiple regression analysis (R ²  = 34.1; model F = 24.19. p < 0.001) was run.

The Spanish version of the questionnaire obtained good reliability coefficients and its factorial structure reliably replicated that obtained by the original measure. The results indicate that the Spanish version of the MWQ is a suitably valid measure to evaluate the mind-wandering phenomenon.