Ruminative Response Scale (RRS)

A growing body of research uses the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) to assess the impact of mindfulness on rumination. The RRS was designed to measure the severity of depressive rumination. There are two versions of the RSS, namely the 22-item scale (RRS-22) and a 10-item measure (RRS-10). The initial 22-item RRS contained 3 factors named depression, brooding, and reflection. Later, confounding items were discarded, resulting in a 10-item scale with the 2 factors brooding and reflection. Both the RRS-22 and RRS-10 have demonstrated sound internal consistency, test-retest reliability, discriminant validity, and convergent validity. The use of both versions of the RRS has rapidly grown across different cultures, with translations into several languages. The translated versions of both RRS-22 and RRS-10 demonstrate sound psychometric properties with acceptable reliability as well as validity. Several studies have also recommended the removal or replacement of Item 10 in the RRS-10 due to low factor loadings and cultural sensitivity. Preliminary evidence indicates mindfulness facilitates cognitive defusion, which reduces rumination and reflective pondering, a maladaptive form of reflection. Further research is needed to clarify how mechanisms of mindfulness effectively reduce rumination.