Development of a Participation Focused Measure of Interoception for Adults

Abstract

Interoception is awareness of one’s own internal bodily states. Currently, no participation-based measure of interoception exists. The purpose of this study was to identify items with adequate psychometric properties for a participation-based interoceptive measure grounded in Dunn’s Sensory Processing Framework named the Sensory Profile: Interoception (SPI). Using a cross-sectional psychometric design, internal consistency was examined by calculating Cronbach’s alpha for each of the four subscales of the SPI. Concurrent validity was studied using Pearson Product Moment Correlations to identify relationships between the SPI and the Adolescent Adult Sensory Profile (A/ASP) subscales. Interoception items correlating most strongly with their intended subscale were identified, maintaining 70 of the original 101 items (N = 55). The resulting subscales (sensitivity, avoiding, registration, and seeking) had good internal consistency (α = .63–.88) and correlated moderately with the corresponding A/ASP subscale. The findings provide preliminary support for the SPI’s internal consistency and concurrent validity.