Dimensionality and cross-language invariance of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index among Indian adolescents and adults.

Sleep quality, key to physical and mental health, requires regular assessment in clinical and non-clinical settings. Despite widespread use, the dimensionality of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is debated, and its Hindi version's factor structure remains unexplored. Our study evaluates the PSQI's dimensionality among Indian adolescents and adults aiming to demonstrate cross-language (Hindi and English) invariance of its factor structure. The PSQI showed satisfactory item reliability, and a best-fitting two-factor model: "sleep efficiency" (comprising sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency), and "perceived sleep quality" (comprising remaining five PSQI components). This model showed configural invariance across age groups, sexes, and languages. Metric invariance was noted across age groups, but a partial metric non-invariance was observed across languages and sexes as reflected by differences in factor loadings. The second-order factor structure model had an excellent fit indicating the usefulness of aggregate scores of the two factors as a single index of sleep quality. Our findings better support a two-factor structure of sleep quality (both for English and Hindi versions of PSQI) in India. However, further validation in diverse clinical and non-clinical samples is warranted.

Attenuated maladaptive emotion processing as a potential mediator of the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and mental health.

The emotion processing and regulation mechanisms by which dispositional (personality trait) mindfulness exerts its positive effects on mental health remain unclear. Here, we tested, using structural equation modeling, whether the relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness and better mental health is mediated by reduced maladaptive processing of emotional information (e.g., expressive suppression, impoverished emotional experiences, unprocessed emotions, avoidance, externalizing strategies) and associated lower negative affect, enhanced adaptive processing of emotional information (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) and associated higher positive affect, or a combination of these two emotion processing styles. Dispositional mindfulness, mental health, diverse emotional constructs with adaptive and maladaptive dimensions (including range and differentiation of emotional experiences, use of specific emotion regulation strategies, emotion processing deficits, negative affect repair strategies, negative mood regulation expectancies), and positive and negative affect were assessed using self-report measures in a non-clinical sample of 256 adults. The relationship between higher dispositional mindfulness and better mental health was found to be best explained by reduced maladaptive emotion processing styles and associated lower negative affect, rather than by enhanced adaptive emotion processing and higher positive affect. Further research should investigate whether the same mechanisms explain psychological benefits of cultivated mindfulness in people with low dispositional mindfulness and/or with mental health disorders following mindfulness skills training.