Introduction
Interest in using mindfulness in psychology has significantly increased in recent years [1]. Mindfulness can be conceptualized as a state, a trait, or a practice [2]. Despite past research on trait mindfulness and its associations with sexual and romantic relationships, less attention has been paid to sexual mindfulness as a subset of state mindfulness, which is more closely related to interpersonal relationships [9]. The application of sexual mindfulness (defined as being mindful during sex in a context that is often high in anxiety) may require greater attention and non-judgment than mindfulness in other less stressful situations [10]. For example, practicing mindfulness during yoga is quite different from mindfulness during sex [11]. Despite the role of sexual mindfulness in predicting sexual satisfaction and the quality of marital relationships, the psychometric assessment of a tool for measuring sexual mindfulness in Iranian samples has been neglected. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the sexual mindfulness measure (SMM) for married people in Iran.

Methods
This is a descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. Participants were 366 Iranian married people, including 74 males and 292 females. Questionnaires were used to assess the outcomes. The marital sexual function scale (MSFS), developed by Farajinia et al. in 2014, was used to measure their sexual functioning. The items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the total scale is 0.95; for the seven subscales, it ranges from 0.75 to 0.93, indicating satisfactory internal consistency of the MSFS. The five-facet mindfulness questionnaire (FFMQ) with 39 items designed by Baer et al. in 2006 was used to measure participants’ mindfulness. It measures five facets of mindfulness: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experiences, and non-reactivity to inner experiences. The SMM was developed by Leavitt et al. in 2019. It has 7 items (4 items for the awareness subscale and 3 items for the non-judgment subscale) scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software, version.25 and AMOS software. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to assess internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factor structure of the questionnaire. Convergent validity was assessed using the MSFS and FFMQ. Regression analysis was employed to test the predictive validity. 

Results
The Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.83 for the awareness subscale and 0.71 for the non-judgment subscale. The fit indices, including the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Goodness of fit index (GFI), Adjusted Goodness of fit index (AGFI), Incremental Fit Index (IFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) are presented in Table 1.



The factor loadings for all items exceeded 0.40, indicating an adequate factor loading for all items. The CFA results confirmed the two-factor structure of the Persian SMM. Figure 1 presents the CFA model and the factor loadings for the items.



For criterion validity, the results showed significant correlations between both awareness and non-judgment dimensions of the SMM with the dimensions of the FFMQ and of MSFS, where the correlations of two dimensions of the SMM with the MSFS score were higher than those with the FFMQ score. For predictive validity, the results of the analysis of variance showed that the regression model was significant and could predict 55% of the variance in sexual functioning. The results are reported in Table 2.




Conclusion
The Persian SMM has a two-factor structure with high internal consistency. Its score (both total and subscale scores) in married people has a significant relationship with the FFMQ and MSFS scores. The sexual functioning of married people can be significantly predicted by the awareness and non-judgment domains of the SMM. Therapists are recommended to consider sexual mindfulness as an important factor for improving the sexual functioning of married clients, and the Persian SMM can be utilized for research and therapeutic purposes in Iran.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study has ethical approval from the Iran University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.IUMS.REC.1402.232). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. They were assured of the confidentiality of their information and were free to leave the study at any time.

Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors contributions
The authors contributed equally to preparing this paper.

Conflicts of interest
The author declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants for their cooperation in this study.