title: Interoceptive sensitivity, body image dissatisfaction, and body awareness in healthy individuals.
abstract: Relationships among interoceptive sensitivity (IS), body image dissatisfaction, body mass index (BMI), and self-reported body awareness were investigated in a cross-sectional study. Eighty-two Norwegian high school students and 70 Hungarian undergraduate university students participated in the study. Subjects completed two questionnaires (Body Image Ideals Questionnaire - BIQ; Body Awareness Questionnaire - BAQ) followed by the assessment of interoceptive sensitivity using the Mental Tracking Method (MTM). An inverse, medium-level relationship between body image dissatisfaction and IS was found in both the Norwegian and the Hungarian samples. The relationships between IS and self-reported body awareness, and between body image dissatisfaction and BMI were uniformly non-significant in both samples. Predictors of body image dissatisfaction were resting heart rate, gender, and IS in the regression analysis after controlling for BMI, age, and nationality. The negative relationship between IS and body image dissatisfaction described in patients with anorexia nervosa also exists in healthy individuals. There is no direct connection between IS and self-reported body awareness.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Emanuelsen
authors.forename: Raechel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Drew
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Köteles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001364:Awareness; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D065812:Interoception / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body image; body awareness; interoceptive sensitivity