Psychological inflexibility in university students: the european portuguese version of the acceptance and action questionnaire-university students

Ana Galhardo^{1

2}, Maria Neto¹, Bárbara Monteiro^{1

2}, Ilda Massano-Cardoso^{1

3

4}, Cláudia Ferreira², Marina Cunha^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Superior Miguel Torga, Largo da Cruz de Celas, nº1, 3000-132 Coimbra, Portugal.
² CINEICC - Centre for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioural Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal.
³ Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Azinhaga de Sta. Comba, 3000-548 Celas, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴ CEISUC- Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Av. Dr. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal.

PMID: 36590013
PMCID: PMC9795437
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-04174-9

Psychological inflexibility in university students: the european portuguese version of the acceptance and action questionnaire-university students

Ana Galhardo et al. Curr Psychol. 2022.

. 2022 Dec 28:1-11.

doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-04174-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ana Galhardo^{1

2}, Maria Neto¹, Bárbara Monteiro^{1

2}, Ilda Massano-Cardoso^{1

3

4}, Cláudia Ferreira², Marina Cunha^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Superior Miguel Torga, Largo da Cruz de Celas, nº1, 3000-132 Coimbra, Portugal.
² CINEICC - Centre for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioural Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal.
³ Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Azinhaga de Sta. Comba, 3000-548 Celas, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴ CEISUC- Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Av. Dr. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal.

PMID: 36590013
PMCID: PMC9795437
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-04174-9

Abstract

Psychological inflexibility is defined as a transdiagnostic mechanism characterized by rigid efforts to control psychological reactions to painful, undesirable, unpleasant internal experiences. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-University Students (AAQ-US) was designed to assess students' academic context-related psychological inflexibility. This study adapted the AAQ-US to Portuguese and examined its factor structure, validity, and reliability in a college student sample (sample 1: N = 262). Exploratory factor analysis and parallel analysis suggested a two-factor structure. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in a second sample to cross-validate the AAQ-US factor structure (sample 2: N = 260). One higher-order factor (psychological inflexibility) with two lower-order factors (cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance) revealed a very good fit to the data. The AAQ-US total and dimensions showed good reliability, convergent and incremental validity. Overall, the Portuguese version of the AAQ-US is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing context-specific psychological inflexibility in university students.

Keywords: Assessment; Factor analysis; Psychological inflexibility; Psychometric properties; University students.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest disclosureThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
One higher-order factor model with two lower-order factors (cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance)

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Psychological inflexibility in university students: the european portuguese version of the acceptance and action questionnaire-university students

Affiliations

Psychological inflexibility in university students: the european portuguese version of the acceptance and action questionnaire-university students

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Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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