The Association Between Children’s Interoceptive Awareness and Their Daily Participation: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

Children’s participation in daily occupations can be influenced by a range of factors. One such factor is interoceptive awareness which allows a person to understand their internal body signals and can support emotional and self-regulation. The current literature surrounding interoceptive awareness and children’s participation is lacking. To explore the association between interoceptive awareness and participation in children, 27 typically developing Australian children aged 8–12 years and one of their parents took part in this study. Children and parents completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness – Youth (MAIA-y) and the children completed the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment/Preferences for Activities of Children (CAPE/PAC). Data were analyzed using Spearman Rho correlations with bootstrapping. Several statistically significant correlations were identified relating to both child and parent perspectives of child interoceptive awareness and child participation (Body Listening and Enjoyment [r_s = 0.381, p = .050], Body Listening and Social Activities [r_s = 0.462, p = 0.015], Self-Regulation and Recreational Activities [r_s = 0.468, p = .014]) and parent-reported child interoceptive awareness and child participation (Emotional Awareness and Intensity [r_s=-0.553, p = .003], Attention Regulation and Skill-Based Activities [r_s=-0.540, p = .004], Emotional Awareness and Skill-Based Activities [r_s=-0.646, p < .001]). This exploratory study provides some preliminary evidence relating to associations between children’s interoceptive awareness and aspects of their activity participation.

KEYWORDS:

• interoception
• interoceptive awareness
• children
• participation
• occupational therapy

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the child and parent participants for their great support in this research by volunteering their time. Without their input, ideas and enthusiasm this research would not have been possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted where no specific grant was received from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.