A Brief Measure of Negative Mind-Wandering: Development and Preliminary Incremental Prediction of Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety

Negative self-generated thought is a central feature of both mind-wandering and rumination and plays a key role in depression and anxiety. Brief measures specifically designed to assess negative mind-wandering and suited for repeated assessment are scarce. We developed the Negative Mind-Wandering Inventory (NMWI), a 6-item self-report measure assessing intrusive, repetitive, negatively valenced self-generated thought that is difficult to control and emotionally distressing. In a sample of 77 adults assessed weekly over four weeks, we performed preliminary validation analyses of the Norwegian-translated NMWI, assessing internal consistency, factor structure, convergent validity with established rumination measures, and criterion and incremental validity with depressive symptoms and anxiety. The NMWI showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.89; ωt = 0.91) and a predominantly unidimensional factor structure. NMWI scores correlated moderately to strongly with established rumination measures and explained additional variance in depressive symptoms and trait anxiety beyond these measures, with medium to large incremental effects. Repeated-measures correlations indicated that within-person fluctuations in NMWI covaried with weekly changes in depressive symptoms and trait anxiety. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the NMWI as a brief, reliable measure with incremental validity for repeated assessment of negative self-generated thought. A future validation study should use larger sample sizes with cross-validation, English wording of the questionnaires, and more rigorous assessments of longitudinal qualities.