Disentangling the role of interoceptive sensibility in alexithymia, emotion dysregulation, and depression in healthy individuals

Abstract Interoception, a multifaceted concept defined as the perception of internal bodily signals, is crucially involved in mental health general and emotion regulation particular, being interoceptive sensibility (IS) one most studied processes. The main objective this study was to explore relationships between IS processes, analyzing role eight dimensions assessed by Multidimensional Assessment Interoceptive Awareness-2 (MAIA-2) alexithymia, dysregulation, depression. Additionally, also aimed validate MAIA-2 Spanish sample. To do so, 391 healthy adults, native Peninsular speakers (61.0% women, M age = 29.00, SD 11.40), completed other self-reported questionnaires measure depressive symptoms. Results showed that lower scores on involve an accepting attitude toward signals (e.g., not-worrying) were related alexithymia which, turn, predicted Moreover, eight-factor structure confirmed with acceptable fit indices. This highlights multidimensional nature relevance positive appraisal body regulating emotions.