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

• Published in: International journal of methods in psychiatric research Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. e1596 - n/a
• Main Authors: Cabrera, Ana, Kolacz, Jacek, Pailhez, Guillem, Bulbena‐Cabre, Andrea, Bulbena, Antonio, Porges, Stephen W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2018; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• 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; United States > US; autonomic nervous system; autonomic reactivity; interoception; polyvagal theory; body awareness
• ISSN: 1049-8931; 1557-0657; 1557-0657
• DOI: 10.1002/mpr.1596

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.