Background/Objective: This systematic review aims to evaluate the effect of interventions based on the mindfulness and/or acceptance process on ruminative thoughts, in patients with depression. Method: Electronic searches in Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central, PsycInfo, and Cinahl until December 2016, in addition to hand-searches of relevant studies, identified eleven studies that fulfilling inclusion criteria. Results: A meta-analysis of the effect of the intervention compared to usual care showed a significant and moderate reduction of ruminative thoughts (g = -0.59, 95% CI: -0.77, -0.41; I2 = 0%). Furthermore, findings suggest that mindfulness/acceptance processes might mediate changes in rumination, and that they in turn mediate in the clinical effects of interventions. A meta-analysis of three studies that compared the intervention to other active treatments (medication, behavioral activation and cognitive-behavioral therapy, respectively) showed no significant differences. Conclusions: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy compared to usual care, produces a significant and moderate reduction in rumination. This effect seems independent of the treatment phase (acute or maintenance) or the number of past depressive episodes, and it was maintained one month after the end of treatment. However, further controlled studies with real patients that compare the most commonly used cognitive-behavioral techniques to treat ruminative thoughts to the acceptance and mindfulness techniques are needed.

The Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005) is a self-report questionnaire that measures 24 widely valued strengths of character. In this paper we present the psychometric properties of the Spanish translation in a sample of 1,060 adults. We analyzed its associations with life satisfaction and positive and negative affect, and examined its factorial structure. Data on the prevalence and demographic correlates of the character strengths are described. The results indicated that the 24 subscales had satisfactory reliability (mean α = .81, mean corrected item-total correlations = .50). Correlations of the VIA-IS subscales with life satisfaction and affect replicated findings from earlier studies and supported the construct validity of the scale. Factor analysis justified the five-dimensions of the original instrument

In this paper we present the adaptation of the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS), developed by Kanter, Mulick, Busch, Berlin, and Martell (2007), in a Spanish sample. The psychometric properties were tested in a sample of 263 participants (124 clinical and 139 non-clinical). The results show that, just as in the original English version, the Spanish BADS is a valid and internally consistent scale. Construct validity was examined by correlation with the BDI-II, AAQ, ATQ, MCQ-30, STAI and EROS. Factor analysis justified the four-dimensions of the original instrument (Activation, Avoidance/Rumination, Work/School Impairment and Social Impairment), although with some differences in the factor loadings of the items. Further considerations about the usefulness of the BADS in the clinical treatment of depressed patients are also suggested.

Summary: A scale of bipolar adjectives, the Family Satisfaction by Adjectives Scale (F.S.A.S.), is presented, consisting of 27 items designed to measure family satisfaction, mainly related to the affective connotation derived from family interaction. After applying the scale to a sample of 274 subjects and 16 patients in family therapy, we obtained (a) acceptable indicators of internal consistency (α = .976) and temporal stability (r_xx = 0.758), (b) clear evidence of unidimensionality, (c) significant linear correlations with other measures of family satisfaction (Family Satisfaction, Olson & Wilson, 1982 ; Family Satisfaction Scale, Carver, & Jones, 1992 ), and (d) significant differences between a normal sample and a clinical one.

The VIA Institute on Character is offering the VIA-120 as the standard VIA Survey, replacing the original 240-item version. The present work involved the construction and the initial evaluation of the Spanish VIA-120 as a short version of the Spanish adaptation of the VIA-IS. This short form was developed using data from 2,143 Spanish-speaking adults. The Spanish VIA-120 was developed by selecting the five items with the highest corrected item-total correlations from the 10 items per subscale of the Spanish VIA-IS. Results lent support to the reliability and validity of this short form to measure the 24 character strengths included in The Values in Action (VIA) classification. The internal consistency coefficients of the subscales of the Spanish version of the VIA-120 were substantially equivalent to the long version. The VIA-120 showed high convergence with the Spanish VIA-IS in terms of descriptive statistics and associations with life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Factor structure congruence coefficients also indicated very high convergence between the VIA-IS and the short form. The Spanish VIA-120 proved to be a reliable, valid instrument for the assessment of character strengths.