Body awareness and mindfulness: validation of the Spanish version of the Scale of Body Connection.
BACKGROUND
To assess the psychometric properties and the factor structure of the Spanish version of the Scale of Body Connection (SBC) in a community population of meditators and non-meditators and to investigate the relationships among mindfulness, body awareness and body dissociation.


METHODS
Design. Validation study. Sampling. An internet-based commercial system was used to recruit the sample. Instruments. In addition to the SBC, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were administered.


RESULTS
A sample of 578 subjects responded to all of the items in the protocol. A total of 55.2% of respondents had some previous experience with meditation. A Scree plot showed a two-factor solution involving the Body Awareness (BA) and Body Dissociation (BD) subscales. This study differed from the original validation study in the lack of independence of the subscales; they were correlated in the present study (r=-.11). Internal consistency for BA was α: .86, and for BD, the α was .62. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a subsample (N=67) and was r=.679 for BA and r=.765 for BD. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that mindfulness practice and the FFMQ factors of Observing and Describing were positive predictors of BA. Describing, Acting with awareness and Non-judging negatively predicted BD, and Observing positively predicted BD.


CONCLUSIONS
The study confirms the adequacy of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the SBC for use in community samples. The relationship between SBC and mindfulness is discussed in light of previous research.
Facultad de Psicología.Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), México.
Lucía
L
del C Quezada-Berumen
Facultad de Psicología.Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), México.
Mónica T
MT
González-Ramírez
Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. CIBEROBN Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Spain.
Ausias
A
Cebolla
Servicio de Psiquiatría. Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica-Sant Pau (IIB-SANT PAU), Institut de Recerca del Servicio de Psiquiatría Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona.
Joaquim
J
Soler
Hospital Miguel Servet. Universidad de Zaragoza. Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Spain.
Javier
J
Garcia-Campayo
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D064866:Mindfulness; D011594:Psychometrics; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires