(PS14-68) Cross-cultural Comparisons of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory Across Thai and US Samples

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) operating with the Hexaflex model was found to help enhance people’s engagement with psychological flexibility to counter unwanted feelings, thoughts, and experiences. The Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI) has been translated and validated in English and other Asian languages. The current study aimed to investigate the factor structures of the MPFI short form (24 items) in US and Thai samples to better understand the cross-cultural variations and psychometric characteristics of this scale. The MPFI along with other measures were translated from English to Thai and then back-translated. The online survey was administered on Qualtrics. A total of 247 Thai and 204 US participants completed the survey and were included in the analyses. The MPFI flexibility and inflexibility constructs showed high reliability in both Thai (α = .83) and US samples (α = .89), as well as both countries combined (α = .87). The correlational analysis between MPFI and participant’s height showed no significant correlation in either sample (r = -.03, p = .66 for Thai samples and r = -.10, p = .16 for US samples), signifying discriminant validity. The convergent validity was evidenced in significant correlations between MPFI and a related construct, namely quality of life (r = -.16, p < .05 for Thai samples and r = -.31, p < .001 for US samples). However, psychological flexibility and inflexibility appeared to have different correlational relationships with quality of life when separated and compared between Thai and US samples. An Exploratory Factor Analysis employing Varimax rotation generated 4 factors for both groups, but item loadings differed in important ways on two of the four factors. These results can help practitioners and researchers be more aware and culturally sensitive to the client’s potentially diverse understanding and conceptualizations of their own experiences and tailor their measurements and practices accordingly.