Acceptance and Commitment Questionnaire in the COVID-19 Pandemic (AAQ-COVID)

Abstract

The Acceptance and Commitment Questionnaire in the COVID-19 Pandemic (AAQ-COVID) is a 10-item rating scale developed in 2024 by Buenfil Heredia, Vanega Romero, and Carrillo Trujillo. Its primary function is to measure COVID-specific psychological flexibility, which serves as a crucial protective factor for mental health during prolonged crises, such as the pandemic environment.

The instrument is an adaptation, drawing conceptual elements from existing scales, notably a Spanish-language version (Mellín & Padrós, 2021) and the Portuguese-language Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Trauma Specific (AAQ-TS; Pinto-Gouveia et al., 2015). The AAQ-COVID was initially validated in a non-clinical adult sample in Mexico, with initial psychometric efforts focusing on establishing strong content validity.

Keywords

Adapted Version, COVID-19 Pandemic, Protective Factors, Psychological Flexibility, Psychological Inflexibility, Rating Scale, Mental Health.

Authors

Buenfil Heredia, Carmen Antonia, Vanega Romero, Sally, Carrillo Trujillo, Carlos David.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the AAQ-COVID is to quantitatively assess levels of psychological flexibility specifically related to the challenges, fears, and emotional distress arising from the COVID-19 context. By measuring this construct, the instrument aims to capture an individual’s capacity to remain engaged in valued life activities despite experiencing difficult pandemic-related internal states.

It is designed for use in research settings to understand how this flexibility acts as a protective factor, mitigating the negative impacts of prolonged crisis and stress on general mental health and well-being.

Construct

The AAQ-COVID measures COVID-Specific Psychological Flexibility. This construct is fundamentally rooted in the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which defines psychological flexibility as the ability to contact the present moment fully, while persisting or changing behavior in the service of chosen values.

In the context of the pandemic, the scale specifically captures the degree of psychological inflexibility—the rigid avoidance or control of unwanted internal experiences (thoughts, feelings, and sensations related to COVID-19) that ultimately results in behavioral restriction and interference with meaningful life goals.

Validity

The initial validation efforts for the AAQ-COVID focused exclusively on establishing Content Validity. This process involved a panel of expert judges who systematically evaluated the conceptual relevance, clarity, and clinical utility of each of the 10 proposed items.

The specific methodology required that items be retained or revised if they achieved at least 50% agreement among the judges on any one evaluation criterion (conceptual validity, clarity, or clinical relevance), even when overall inter-judge agreement was low. This rigorous, judge-based evaluation ensured that the items appropriately covered the domain of COVID-specific psychological flexibility before wider psychometric testing.

Reliability

At the time of its initial publication and validation, the authors did not report specific data regarding the internal consistency (such as Cronbach’s alpha) or test-retest reliability of the AAQ-COVID. Further psychometric studies are required to establish the reliability of this 10-item instrument across diverse populations.

Factor Analysis

The initial development and validation study did not include any form of Factor Analysis (e.g., Exploratory Factor Analysis or Confirmatory Factor Analysis). Therefore, the underlying dimensional structure—whether the AAQ-COVID measures a single factor of psychological flexibility or multiple sub-dimensions related to the pandemic experience—has yet to be empirically confirmed.

Instrument

Test Type: Adapted Version (Derived from the Spanish AAQ and Portuguese AAQ-TS)

Format: Rating Scale consisting of 10 items administered electronically. Responses utilize a five-choice Likert scale, ranging from “It doesn’t look anything like my experience” to “It seems almost completely like my experience.”

Language Available: Spanish (Original adaptation language)

Population Group: Human respondents, including both male and female adults.

Age Group: Adulthood (18+ years), Middle Age (40–64 years), and Aged (65+ years).

Population Details: The initial validation sample consisted of non-clinical adults, specifically respondents aged 42–76 years, recruited from two educational centers in Mérida, Mexico. The sample included various staff roles such as teachers, administrative staff, and cleaning personnel.

Test Methodology: Psychometric evaluation focused primarily on Test Validity, specifically through Content Validity procedures.

Keywords

Adapted Version, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Psychological Assessment, COVID-19, Content Validation, Psychological Inflexibility.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Not provided in source documentation)

Affiliation Email addresses:

• Carmen Antonia Buenfil Heredia: [email protected] (Affiliation: Autonomous University of Yucatan)
• Sally Vanega Romero: [email protected] (Affiliation: Autonomous University of Yucatan)
• Carlos David Carrillo Trujillo: [email protected] (Affiliation: Autonomous University of Yucatan)

Correspondence Address: Correspondence is typically directed to the affiliated university addresses (Autonomous University of Yucatan) or the provided author emails.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Acceptance and Commitment Questionnaire in the COVID-19 Pandemic (AAQ-COVID) was developed in 2024. The scale is associated with a Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0), indicating that it is generally available for use, provided appropriate attribution is given to the authors.

No specific fee information was indicated, suggesting open access under the stated license. The administration method is electronic, and no downloadable file of the instrument was available in the source documentation.

Reference’s

• Buenfil Heredia, C. A., Vanega Romero, S., & Carrillo Trujillo, C. D. (2024). Acceptance and Commitment Questionnaire in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Developed at Autonomous University of Yucatan. Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

Items of the Acceptance and Commitment Questionnaire in the COVID-19 Pandemic (AAQ-COVID)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. Thinking about the possibility of myself or my loved ones getting sick with COVID prevents me from living my life as I would like.

2. I try to push away the emotions that the pandemic produces in me.

3. I worry about not being able to control my fears and concerns regarding the pandemic.

4. I am distressed by thinking about the dangers of COVID and the confinement in which I am.

5. My worries and emotions about the pandemic prevent me from living my life as I would like.

6. The emotions that the pandemic produces in me cause me to have problems in my daily life.

7. I think that I am not coping with the pandemic as well as other people.

8. My concerns about my health and that of my loved ones affect my well-being.

9. The pain and distress that the pandemic produces in me interfere with achieving my goals.

10. I do not do things that are important to me because of the fear that the pandemic has produced in me.