Abstract

          This research is of 3 objectives. Firstly :- to study the concepts of Sati in Theravada Buddhist Scriptures, secondly :- to study the concepts of mindfulness assessment scale according to Kabat-Zinn and finally:- to invent the sati assessment scale according Buddhist concepts by the documentary review and field works carried out among 4 sample groups :- 1) Department of Mental Health’s personnel, 2) participants attending the vipassana course, 3) medical personnel and 4)  family caregivers of the dementia and the schizophrenia patients.

          The concept of Sati appears in Tipiṭaka in concordance with each the Piṭaka and depends on the audiences and Lord Buddha’s intention. Sati could be classified into 2 levels i.e., the ordinary Sati and the right Sati. The causes of the right Sati are 4 Satipaṭṭhānas. The right Sati will induce the 24 other beautiful mental factors.

          According to Kabat-Zinn’s concept, the mindfulness consists of 2 domains :- the cognitive of 7 items and the affective of 5 items such as the openness and the compassion. This operational definition is aimed for the self regulation and the development intervention which could evaluate the outcome of the mindfulness treatment . However, this concept was not against the Buddhist Theravada concepts.  Recently there have been 7 mindfulness assessment scales. All scales are self rating (between 4 - 7 score), containing 10 – 39 items and divided into 1 to 5 domains. The culture and the concepts of mindfulness were of impacts on the application in Thailand.

          The first draft of the mindfulness assessment scale consisted of 30 items. The content validity was tested by 7 expert’s opinions by using an applied Delphi technique.  Only 25 items retained for further steps. The reliability was done in 41 personnel and the internal consistency was respectable at Cronbach’s alpha of 0.783.  The re-test was done after 1 week, Pearson intraclass correlation coefficient was fair (0.56).

          The confirmatory validity was done by exploratory factor analysis in the sample of 101 clinical cases attending at Srithanya Hospital and 149 participants attending the 5-day Vipassana course at the Young Buddhists Association of Thailand, Bangkae, Bangkok in  June 2014. The results showed that 15 items retained in the assessment scale and divided into 3 domains namely knowing, automatics and intention.   Then the confirmatory factor analysis was carried out in a medical person group of 160 persons in order to confirm that the mindfulness assessment model is composed of 3 domains and 15 items with goodness of fit indices. The factor loading of each of 15 items was  with the range of 0.280 - 0.934.  The knowing and the intention is of the factor loading on mindfulness of 0.936, 0.908 respectively but that of the automatic domain was low and negative.

          The mindfulness assessment scale had an internal consistency at respectable level among each group and the whole sample (410). The Cronbach’s alpha of the whole scale and each domain (knowing, intention and automatics ) were 0.728, 0.817 0.704 and 0.667 respectively. This assessment scale had significantly discriminant validity with anxiety part of the Hospital Anxiety Depression  (Pearson’s correlation coefficient was of the range -0.410 to 0.00) and was of the  discriminating power among the groups classified with anxiety level and those with the meditation practice frequency. The concurrent validity to Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS)-Thai version was acceptable.

          The mindfulness assessment scale was further tested in 159 family caregivers of the dementia and the schizophrenia patients. The results showed that the internal consistency of the total scale and each domain were excellent. The concurrent validity to PHLMS was good. 

          In conclusion, the mindfulness assessment scale  consists of 15 items with the essence in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and  can be classified into the body of 4 items, Vedanā or feeling of 2 items, Citta of 6 items and Dharma of 3 items. All the validity tests were acceptable in these samples of clinical cases,  the beginners of the  meditation practice, the medical personnel and the family caregivers of the psychiatric patients.

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