title: Young and restless: validation of the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) reveals disruptive impact of mind-wandering for youth.
abstract: Mind-wandering is the focus of extensive investigation, yet until recently there has been no validated scale to directly measure trait levels of task-unrelated thought. Scales commonly used to assess mind-wandering lack face validity, measuring related constructs such as daydreaming or behavioral errors. Here we report four studies validating a Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) across college, high school, and middle school samples. The 5-item scale showed high internal consistency, as well as convergent validity with existing measures of mind-wandering and related constructs. Trait levels of mind-wandering, as measured by the MWQ, were correlated with task-unrelated thought measured by thought sampling during a test of reading comprehension. In both middle school and high school samples, mind-wandering during testing was associated with worse reading comprehension. By contrast, elevated trait levels of mind-wandering predicted worse mood, less life-satisfaction, greater stress, and lower self-esteem. By extending the use of thought sampling to measure mind-wandering among adolescents, our findings also validate the use of this methodology with younger populations. Both the MWQ and thought sampling indicate that mind-wandering is a pervasive-and problematic-influence on the performance and well-being of adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Mrazek
authors.forename: Dawa T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Broadway
authors.forename: Jonathan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Schooler
keywords: K-12 education; attention; mind-wandering; reading comprehension; well-being