Spanish Journal of Psychology (2013), 16, e79, 1–10. © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oicial de Psicólogos de Madrid doi:10.1017/sjp.2013.79 The growing interest in mindfulness has been respon- sible for the origin of several deinitions and descrip- tions of this construct (Sauer & Baer, 2010). It is usually deined as the awareness that emerges through bringing one’s complete attention to the experiences occurring in the present moment, on purpose, in a nonjudgmental and accepting way (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Similarly, in their deinitions of a mindful state, Brown and Ryan (2003), and Marlatt and Kristeller (1999) share emphasis on the power of attention and awareness of the present moment. This way of paying sustained attention to the internal or external experience is also usually charac- terized by curiosity, acceptance and openness (Bishop et al., 2004; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). Although several authors reclaim the importance of studying mindfulness as an individual difference characteristic (Brown & Ryan, 2003), mindfulness as a training tool has been widely studied and the ben- eits of mindfulness-based interventions have been largely documented. Over the past few years, mind- fulness has been incorporated into numerous psycho- logical treatment programs for distinct populations, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Kabat- Zinn, 1982, 1990) developed for populations with a wide range of chronic pain and stress-related disorders, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002) designed to prevent depressive relapse in formerly depressed individuals, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (Linehan, 1993) for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, Relapse Prevention (Marlatt & Kristeller, 1999) designed to target relapses in individuals with substance abuse, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) not speciically based in mindfulness meditation but making use of several of its strategies for a wide variety of populations. The majority of these studies on mindfulness-based interventions and other approaches that incorporate mindfulness as a component offer promising results, but also present serious methodo- logical problems. Among these we have the lack of well-validated measures of mindfulness (Baer, 2003; Baer, 2010). In line with this need, and given the fact that until the present moment there are no objective tests for measuring mindfulness, in the last few years several assessment tools have been designed to measure mind- fulness, either as a state or as trait. All these forms of self-report questionnaires not only differ in their under- lying mindfulness conceptualization and operationali- zation, but also in their content and factor structure (Baer, 2011; Sauer & Baer, 2010). Among others, we have the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (Brown & Ryan, 2003), the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (Buchheld, Grossman, & Walach, 2001), the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Mindful Attention and Awareness: Relationships with Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation Sónia Gregório and José Pinto-Gouveia University of Coimbra (Portugal) Abstract. The growing interest in mindfulness from the scientiic community has originated several self-report mea- sures of this psychological construct. The Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS) is a self-report measure of mindfulness at a trait-level. This paper aims at exploring MAAS psychometric characteristics and validating it for the Portuguese population. The irst two studies replicate some of the original author’s statistical procedures in two dif- ferent samples from the Portuguese general community population, in particular conirmatory factor analyses. Results from both analyses conirmed the scale single-factor structure and indicated a very good reliability. Moreover, cross- validation statistics showed that this single-factor structure is valid for different respondents from the general commu- nity population. In the third study the Portuguese version of the MAAS was found to have good convergent and discriminant validities. Overall the indings support the psychometric validity of the Portuguese version of MAAS and suggest this is a reliable self-report measure of trait-mindfulness, a central construct in Clinical Psychology research and intervention ields. Received 14 February 2012; Revised 28 May 2012; Accepted 12 September 2012 Keywords: mindfulness, MAAS, Portuguese validation, emotion regulation. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sónia Gregório. CINEICC. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação. Universidade de Coimbra. Rua do Colégio Novo. Apartado 6153. 3001–802. Coimbra (Portugal). Phone: +351–966913438. Fax: +351–239851462. E-mail: sm_gregorio@hotmail.com