Assessing body awareness and autonomic reactivity: Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Body Perception Questionnaire‐Short Form (BPQ‐SF)

Body awareness and reactivity dysfunction are characteristic of a range of psychiatric disorders. Although the neural pathways communicating between the body and brain that contribute to these experiences involve the autonomic nervous system, few research tools for studying subjective bodily experie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of methods in psychiatric research 2018-06, Vol.27 (2), p.e1596-n/a
Main Authors: Cabrera, Ana, Kolacz, Jacek, Pailhez, Guillem, Bulbena‐Cabre, Andrea, Bulbena, Antonio, Porges, Stephen W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Autonomic nervous system
Autonomic Nervous System - physiology
autonomic reactivity
Awareness - physiology
Behavior disorders
body awareness
Discriminant analysis
Female
Humans
interoception
Interoception - physiology
Male
Mental disorders
Middle Aged
Neural networks
Original
Perception
polyvagal theory
Psychometrics - instrumentation
Psychometrics - standards
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Quantitative psychology
Questionnaires
Reproducibility of Results
Young Adult
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Summary:Body awareness and reactivity dysfunction are characteristic of a range of psychiatric disorders. Although the neural pathways communicating between the body and brain that contribute to these experiences involve the autonomic nervous system, few research tools for studying subjective bodily experiences have been informed by these neural circuits. This paper describes the factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity of the Body Awareness and Autonomic Reactivity subscales of the Body Perception Questionnaire‐Short Form (BPQ‐SF). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to data from three samples collected via the internet in Spain and the US and a college population in the US (combined n = 1320). Body awareness was described by a single factor. Autonomic reactivity reflected unique factors for organs above and below the diaphragm. Subscales showed strong reliability; converged with validation measures; and differed by age, sex, medication use, and self‐reported psychiatric disorder. Post hoc analyses were used to create the 12‐item Body Awareness Very Short Form. Results are discussed in relation to the distinct functions of supra‐ and sub‐diaphragmatic autonomic pathways as proposed by the Polyvagal Theory and their potential dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.
ISSN:1049-8931
1557-0657
DOI:10.1002/mpr.1596