In plain language
Breathing exercises are among the most widely used tools for improving well-being, yet studies of these interventions almost never measure breathing itself—partly because existing breathing questionnaires only capture problems, such as breathlessness or hyperventilation. Nothing existed to measure the positive side of breathing: the skills, habits, and confidence that let a person use their breath as a resource for feeling and functioning well. This study set out to build and validate the first such measure, the Perceived Breath Mastery Scale (PBM-S).
The researchers developed items with the help of a globally diverse expert panel and tested them in a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australian adults. Analyses supported a 23-item scale with three dimensions: breath efficacy (confidence in using the breath, e.g., to calm down or stay present), breath efficiency (quiet, effortless, nasal breathing), and breath awareness (noticing and valuing one's breath). All three dimensions correlated moderately to strongly with flourishing, vitality, sleep quality, and physical fitness, and negatively with markers of poor well-being.
Strikingly, breath mastery predicted flourishing as well as or better than well-established constructs like mindfulness, interoceptive awareness, nonattachment, and general self-efficacy, while remaining clearly distinct from dysfunctional breathing. Using a machine-learning (genetic algorithm) approach, the team also created a 9-item short form and a 12-item version that adds dysfunctional breathing as a fourth factor. The authors recommend these tools for tailoring breathing interventions and understanding how they work.
Key findings
- The PBM-S is the first validated self-report measure of the positive psychological dimensions of breathing, with a 3-factor, 23-item structure: breath efficacy, breath efficiency, and breath awareness.
- In a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australian adults, exploratory factor analysis (n = 702) and exploratory structural equation modelling (n = 298) confirmed the three-factor structure with good to excellent fit (CFI = .965, TLI = .953, RMSEA = .045).
- All three dimensions correlated moderately to strongly with flourishing (up to r = .66), subjective vitality, positive well-being processes, sleep quality, and physical fitness.
- The PBM-S predicted flourishing as well as or better than widely used measures including mindfulness, interoceptive awareness, nonattachment, and general self-efficacy.
- Breath mastery was largely distinct from dysfunctional breathing (only small, mostly inverse correlations), supporting a dual-continua view: the two measures uniquely predicted positive and negative well-being outcomes, respectively.
- A genetic algorithm produced a 9-item short form of the PBM-S and a combined 12-item version including dysfunctional breathing, both performing nearly identically to the full scales.
How to cite
APA
Darkins, R. J., Ciarrochi, J., & Sahdra, B. K. (2025). Breathe well, be well: Development and validation of the Perceived Breath Mastery Scale (PBM-S) [Preprint]. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532844/v1
BibTeX
@article{darkins2025breathe,
author = {Darkins, Rory Joseph and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Sahdra, Baljinder K.},
title = {Breathe well, be well: Development and validation of the Perceived Breath Mastery Scale (PBM-S)},
journal = {Research Square},
year = {2025},
note = {Preprint},
doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532844/v1}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.