Eisenbeck, N., & Szabó-Bartha, A. (2018) Validation of the Hungarian version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II).

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) is a broadly used measure of psychological inflexibility, defined as the rigid dominance of psychological reactions over chosen values, in guiding action. This may represent a transdiagnostic process that has been linked to a wide range of mental problems and health issues. The present study aims to validate this instrument for Hungarian and then evaluate its psychometric properties and factor structure. The total sample consisted of 1065 Hungarian-speaking participants, divided into two groups (No treatment history: participants without previous psychiatric/psychological treatment; Treatment history: participants who underwent psychiatric/psychological treatment). The results of this study were similar to the ones obtained in the original version of the AAQ-II and in other language versions. The internal consistency of the instrument was .90 and the hypothesized factor structure showed good fit with the data. Partial measurement invariance was found across gender and sample. The average AAQ-II scores were significantly higher in the Treatment history group than the No treatment history group. On the one hand, psychological flexibility positively correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, general psychological distress and nonadaptative coping styles. On the other, it negatively correlated with psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, health status and healthy coping style. These findings suggest that the Hungarian version of the AAQ-II is a valid questionnaire which further supports psychological inflexibility as a universal construct across different languages and cultures.