A replication and development of the short cognitive mediation beliefs questionnaire (CMBQ-S)

Turner, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1975-5561, Vione, Katia, Simonovic, Boban, Stupple, Edward, Brooks, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5469-7769 and Sheffield, David (2024) A replication and development of the short cognitive mediation beliefs questionnaire (CMBQ-S). Emotion. ISSN 1528-3542

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Abstract

The Cognitive Mediation Beliefs Questionnaire (CMBQ) is a 15-item tool that assesses individuals' emotion beliefs about the cognitive mediation of emotions. It measures two emotion beliefs: stimulus-response (S-R) generation beliefs and cognitive mediation (C-M) change beliefs. This study aimed to reduce the number of items and test the validity of a briefer version of the CMBQ. We combined data from 13 unpublished datasets collected between 2019 and 2023 and reached a final sample of 2872 participants. While this dataset is relatively large and diverse (e.g., participants from 53 nationalities), most were from developed countries and the data was not fully representative across demographic characteristics such as age and ethnicity. The data was randomly split by 50%/25%/25% (60%/40% female/male) in order to conduct one exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Using an iterative process in the EFA, 7-items were deleted for failing to meet item retention criteria, resulting in an 8-items solution across two factors. Across two CFAs with independent samples, the 8-items and the 15-items solutions were tested. The 8-item model was superior in terms of model fit in both samples. These results were in line with our hypothesis in that an 8-item CMBQ-S confirmed the validity of the two-factor structure. The present study offers a valid and efficient measure of emotion beliefs that can be used to make a rapid assessment of beliefs about emotions and support clinical interventions, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approaches, where cognitive change is fundamental.