Assessing Psychological Inflexibility

The Psychometric Properties of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth in Two Adult Samples

Fergus, Thomas A.
Valentiner, David P.
Gillen, Michael J.
Hiraoka, Regina
Twohig, Michael P.
Abramowitz, Jonathan S.
McGrath, Patrick B.

¹Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University
²Department of Psychology, Utah State University
³Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
⁴OCD and Related Anxiety Disorders Program, Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital

David P. Valentiner, Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115 [email protected]

Submission April 1, 2011. Revision June 22, 2011. Accepted August 15, 2011.

Psychological Assessment 24(2):p 402-408, June 2012. | DOI: 10.1037/a0025776

The current study examined whether the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y; ), a self-report measure of psychological inflexibility for children and adolescents, might be useful for measuring psychological inflexibility for adults. The psychometric properties of the AFQ-Y were examined using data from a college student sample (N = 387) and a clinical sample of patients with anxiety disorders (N = 115). The AFQ-Y, but not the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II; ), demonstrated a reading level at or below the recommended 5th or 6th grade reading level. The AFQ-Y also demonstrated adequate reliability (internal consistency), factorial validity, convergent and discriminant validity, and concurrent validity predicting psychological symptoms. Moreover, the AFQ-Y showed incremental validity over the AAQ-II in predicting several psychological symptom domains. Implications for the assessment of psychological inflexibility are discussed.