Validity and reliability of multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) in Iranian students

MAIA is designed to assess the awareness of bodily sensations without the interference of cognitive factors. The aim of current study was to adapt the original scale and to investigate its preliminary psychometric properties in Iranian students.
The type of current research was descriptive-applied and cross-sectional study. Examining the aim of study, a sample of 425 students from Tehran and Kashan Universities (44.3% male) completed a battery of questionnaires in first semester of 2014-2015. The construct, convergent and divergent validity (using Pearson correlation) and reliability (internal consistency using Chronbach Alpha) of MAIA were assessed and correlation test was applied for examining inter-item relations. The analyses were done using SPSS, sixteenth version (P Exploratory factor analysis revealed an eight-factor structure (Noticing, Not distracting, Not worrying, Healthy attention to body, Maintaining attention to body, Emotional awareness, Self-regulation, Listening to body and trusting it) with Eigen value higher than which accounted for 60% of total variance. The general pattern of factors was comparable to the original scale. Furthermore, the internal consistency of MAIA subscales was acceptable (Chronbach alpha 0.53 to 0.83). The highest level of convergent validity was seen between self-regulation and convergent measure of positive affect (r=0.32) and the highest level of divergent validity was observed between not-worrying and the divergent measure of fear of injury (r=0.41).
The results of this study confirmed the validity and reliability of MAIA in Iranian population.