The perception of one's own body, known as interoceptive awareness (IA), plays a key role in both mental health and the psychotherapeutic process. It helps us to recognize bodily signals such as hunger, heartbeat or breathing and connect them to our emotions. Scientists are still trying to better understand how people perceive their bodily signals and how these signals relate to their mental health. Various measurement tools are used to do this, one of the most widely used being the MAIA (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness) questionnaire.
The MAIA questionnaire is based on the theoretical model of IA, for which the authors of the study Adam Klocek, Tomáš Řiháček and Hynek Cígler from INPSY/Centre for Psychotherapy Research exploratively searched for support in the data using longitudinal network analysis on a sample of patients with different psychiatric diagnoses. The authors aimed to explore the interrelationships between different aspects of interoceptive awareness, such as the ability to recognize bodily signals, regulate attention or trust one's own body, and their connection to mental well-being. The study involved 431 patients from several clinical centres in the Czech Republic who were followed for eight weeks, 75% of whom were women.
Previous studies using the MAIA questionnaire in different language versions have shown that the psychometric characteristics are not always acceptable, so the authors decided to simultaneously test the properties of the Czech translation of the scale, MAIACZ.
Given the theoretical model and the results of the factor structure validation of the MAIACZ instrument, it can be clearly stated that the IA is not unidimensional, but breaks down into eight factors that together populate the IA construct. The individual IA factors are even negatively related to each other. Some subscales of the MAIACZ did not work as well as expected, in particular the questions on the ability not to be distracted by bodily signals or not to be unduly disturbed by them were not as reliable as other parts of the test. Network analysis revealed that the ability to regulate attention and self-regulation plays a key role in the perception of one's own body. Patients who were generally able to regulate their attention were also better able to use other beneficial IA skills.
Attitudes towards perceiving signals from our bodies may play a key role
The results of the study further suggest that, from a process perspective, attitude toward perceiving bodily signals is a key predictor of further IA development, influencing both perception itself and deeper processing. Thus, according to the authors, the formation of a stronger attitude towards bodily sensations precedes their better perception and recognition.
This study provides new insights into how people perceive their bodies and opens the door for further research in this area as well as for application in practice. Thus, one possible implication for psychotherapy might be, for example, that therapists might first focus on changing clients' attitudes toward their own body perceptions. Only then, depending on the results, would it be appropriate to start working on improving the client's ability to perceive stimuli from their own body. However, the authors caution that these are only exploratory interpretations that should be taken with a grain of salt and recommend that future studies should focus on improving the reliability of some of the MAIACZ subscales and investigate more deeply the relationship between interoceptive awareness and various psychological disorders.
Recommended citation:
Klocek, A., Řiháček, T. & Cígler, H. (2025) Czech Version of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA): Psychometric Evaluation and Network Model. Mindfulness (16), 403–420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-025-02515-w
