Flow State Scale-2

The Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2) is a 36-item self-report instrument developed by Susan Jackson and Robert Eklund (2002) to measure flow — the state of optimal experience and total absorption — as it occurs in a specific physical-activity episode. It operationalizes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's nine dimensions of flow: challenge-skill balance, action-awareness merging, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, total concentration on the task, a sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, transformation of time, and the autotelic (intrinsically rewarding) experience. The FSS-2 revised the original Flow State Scale by replacing problematic items, and confirmatory factor analyses across an item-identification and a cross-validation sample showed good fit for both a nine-factor and a higher-order model, with subscale reliabilities between roughly .80 and .92. A companion Dispositional Flow Scale-2 measures the same nine dimensions as a general tendency rather than a single episode.