The CFA was performed on the first sample and did not achieve an overall good fit based on the proposed two factors. The researchers performed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequent CFA on their second sample of students and found that a unifactorial construct of decentering fit the data. This single factor loaded on 11 of the 16 items of the EQ. The researchers hypothesized that the EQ measures a single decentering construct that is made up of several different aspects of decentering (Fresco et al., 2007). Next, Fresco et al. (2007) examined the discriminate validity and concurrent validity of the EQ. The researchers examined the EQ in relation to depressive rumination, experiential avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and emotion suppression. According to Fresco et al. A measure of the decentering should positively correlated with measures of cognitive appraisal and negatively correlated with measures of depressive rumination, depression, avoidance, and emotional suppression. The researchers correlated the EQ with a measure of depression (the Beck Depression Inventory-II), a measure of avoidance (the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire), measures of anhedonic depression and anxiety (two subscales of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire), rumination (from the Ruminative Responsive subscale of the Response Styles Questionnaire), and appraisal (from the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire). The resulting correlation matrix indicated that the correlations of interest ranged from moderate to high in direction predicted by the researchers.

used a sample of patients with depression and other psychiatric issues and performed a CFA on the data to replicate the earlier finding of a single factor in the EQ. Performing a CFA on a clinical sample would help to confirm greater generalizability of the measure. The results indicated that the model fit the clinical sample data and indicated that a unifactorial decentering factor of the EQ could be applied to a clinical population as well as a community sample.
In summary Fresco et al. (2007) attempted to validate the EQ, a measure of decentering, in order to better determine its utility for use in counseling. Their findings indicated that the measure does have satisfactory construct validity in both clinical and community samples and has acceptable discriminant validity and concurrent validity. Because the results indicated that the EQ single factorial construct is composed of 11 items counselors should familiarize themselves with which items on the measure are most useful to measuring and understanding decentering in their clients. The measure could serve as a pretest and posttest measure for clients engaged in mindfulness or cognitive therapies involving changing their reactions to internal automatic thoughts.

References

Fresco, D.M., Moore, M.T., van Dulmen, M.H.M., Segal, Z.V., Ma, S.H., Teasdale, J.D., & Williams, J.M.G. (2007). Initial properties of the experiences questionnaire: Validation of a self-report measure of decentering. Behavior Therapy, 38, 234-236.