Psychometric properties of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y8) in socioeconomically disadvantaged Chilean adolescents

Psychological inflexibility (PI) is considered a transdiagnostic mechanism that underlies the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of a wide range of psychological problems in adolescents. The main instrument for evaluating PI in adolescents is the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y), however, there is scarce evidence of its relation with other constructs in socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents. This study is a secondary data analysis aimed at examining the factor structure, reliability, convergent validity, and invariance across sex of the 8-item AFQ-Y in 297 Chilean adolescents from socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts (M = 14.87 (.78), 46.8 % women). Results confirmed that the AFQ-Y8 has an unifactorial structure as well as adequate internal reliability and convergent validity. Furthermore, it was observed that it is significantly associated with measures of mindfulness and depression and the emotion regulation strategy expressive suppression, but not with the strategy cognitive reappraisal. Given its adequate psychometric properties, the AFQ-Y8 can be used with Chilean adolescents in socioeconomically disadvantaged settings. However, further research testing its psychometric properties in a broader adolescent population is needed.