title: Validation of the comprehensive inventory of mindfulness experiences (CHIME) in English using Rasch methodology

authors: Wilkinson, Samuel

abstract: Although mindfulness has been studied for multiple decades, psychometric research has yet to agree upon the optimal way to measure the mindfulness construct. Prior research has identified eight distinct aspects of mindfulness that were not adequately captured by any of the available measures. Hence, the Comprehensive Inventory of Mindfulness Experiences (CHIME) was developed. The CHIME contains 37 items and was originally developed in the German language. The CHIME has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties in both German and Dutch, but so far, no English version has been validated. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the translated English-language CHIME scale using Rasch methodology.
Method: The current study utilized Partial Credit Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the English CHIME. The sample included responses from 620 participants from the general population residing in the USA. The validity of the English CHIME was examined by correlating its scores with various measures of mindfulness and psychological functioning.
Results: Initial Rasch analysis of the English CHIME showed poor model fit, local dependency, and evidence against the assumption of unidimensionality. Several minor modifications, that involved creating super-items, were required to fit the Rasch model χ2(45)=31.99, p=0.93). This model displayed evidence of unidimensionality, invariance across personal factors, and a high reliability (PSI=0.92). Ordinal-interval transformation tables were produced, which increase the English CHIME’s precision of measurement. The English CHIME’s external validity was established by moderate–high correlations with other measures of mindfulness and various measures of psychological functioning.
Conclusions: The results of this study provide evidence for the validity of the English CHIME scale, which can be used to assess the overarching construct of mindfulnes.

text: Validation of the comprehensive inventory of mindfulness experiences (CHIME) in English using Rasch methodology Although mindfulness has been studied for multiple decades, psychometric research has yet to agree upon the optimal way to measure the mindfulness construct. Prior research has identified eight distinct aspects of mindfulness that were not adequately captured by any of the available measures. Hence, the Comprehensive Inventory of Mindfulness Experiences (CHIME) was developed. The CHIME contains 37 items and was originally developed in the German language. The CHIME has demonstrated excellent psychometric properties in both German and Dutch, but so far, no English version has been validated. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the translated English-language CHIME scale using Rasch methodology.
Method: The current study utilized Partial Credit Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the English CHIME. The sample included responses from 620 participants from the general population residing in the USA. The validity of the English CHIME was examined by correlating its scores with various measures of mindfulness and psychological functioning.
Results: Initial Rasch analysis of the English CHIME showed poor model fit, local dependency, and evidence against the assumption of unidimensionality. Several minor modifications, that involved creating super-items, were required to fit the Rasch model χ2(45)=31.99, p=0.93). This model displayed evidence of unidimensionality, invariance across personal factors, and a high reliability (PSI=0.92). Ordinal-interval transformation tables were produced, which increase the English CHIME’s precision of measurement. The English CHIME’s external validity was established by moderate–high correlations with other measures of mindfulness and various measures of psychological functioning.
Conclusions: The results of this study provide evidence for the validity of the English CHIME scale, which can be used to assess the overarching construct of mindfulnes.

year: 2023-04-13

title: A year in climate change emergency

authors: Daya-Winterbottom, Trevor

abstract: This country report provides an overview of recent case law and legislative amendments regarding climate change mitigation, and the declaration of a climate emergency by the New Zealand Parliament.

text: A year in climate change emergency This country report provides an overview of recent case law and legislative amendments regarding climate change mitigation, and the declaration of a climate emergency by the New Zealand Parliament.

year: 2021-04

title: Alternative anthropologies: Kete aronui from the Waikato

authors: McCormack, Fiona

abstract: As three anthropologists working at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), we experience anthropology in our daily work in the context of our local histories, communities and politics. While many anthropologists are familiar with the critiques of anthropology that play out in the USA or Europe, the narratives and practices of anthropology from places such as New Zealand are less well known. We argue that these local, diverse experiences of anthropology can enlarge our international understandings and imaginations of what anthropology can be, as well as the challenges it may face.

Anthropologists working in New Zealand today face the same plethora of academic pressures as those found in their counterparts in North America, Britain and Europe; pressures instigated by decades of neoliberal reform, managerialism, and the impact of new entrepreneurial and corporate models of universities that shape everyday identities and social relationships (Shore 2010). Similarly, the critique of anthropology as a discipline rooted in colonial imperatives and practices, resounds in a society whose imperial history and settler colonial present continues to imprint on educational institutions, pedagogy and research. In New Zealand, no neat historical trajectory marks a path from extractive research, wherein Indigenous knowledge and ways of life are pottled for export to the empire’s core, to one based on mutuality, co-creation and the indigenisation of anthropological knowledge.

text: Alternative anthropologies: Kete aronui from the Waikato As three anthropologists working at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), we experience anthropology in our daily work in the context of our local histories, communities and politics. While many anthropologists are familiar with the critiques of anthropology that play out in the USA or Europe, the narratives and practices of anthropology from places such as New Zealand are less well known. We argue that these local, diverse experiences of anthropology can enlarge our international understandings and imaginations of what anthropology can be, as well as the challenges it may face.

Anthropologists working in New Zealand today face the same plethora of academic pressures as those found in their counterparts in North America, Britain and Europe; pressures instigated by decades of neoliberal reform, managerialism, and the impact of new entrepreneurial and corporate models of universities that shape everyday identities and social relationships (Shore 2010). Similarly, the critique of anthropology as a discipline rooted in colonial imperatives and practices, resounds in a society whose imperial history and settler colonial present continues to imprint on educational institutions, pedagogy and research. In New Zealand, no neat historical trajectory marks a path from extractive research, wherein Indigenous knowledge and ways of life are pottled for export to the empire’s core, to one based on mutuality, co-creation and the indigenisation of anthropological knowledge.

year: 2025