Current Research in Psychology and Behavioral Science (CRPBS) Multidimensional Interoceptive Awareness, Psychosomatic Symptoms, and Risk for Eating Disorders in a Female at Birth Adolescent Sample

perfectionism, internalization of cultural thinness conveyed by mass and dissatisfaction with the body image Along with these studies, a growing body of literature has investigated the role of interoceptive awareness (interoceptive awareness) in ED [5 ,6]. Interoceptive awareness has been defined as “the process by which the nervous system sense, interprets, and integrates signal originating from within the body, providing a moment-by-moment mapping of the body’s internal safe and trustworthy An additional factor in body awareness is the individuals’ perception of somatic symptoms. Few studies explored the association between psychosomatic conditions and ED. Abbate-Daga [15,16] investigated the comorbidity of psychosomatic symptoms in ED, and the results showed that 93,6% of the sample (108 inpatients with anorexia nervosa) reported a psychosomatic syndrome. In the case of overeating disorders, the presence of somatic disorders is due to the condition dictated by the disorder [17,18], but in the case of psychosomatic symptoms, the relationship is less clear. The need to clarify the presence of psychosomatic symptoms as risk factors for ED is strong. This relationship has been investigated in few other studies, which had considered the role of somatization as a risk and maintenance factor in ED [19,20] and, in particular, the role that gastrointestinal symptoms play with gender, ethnicity, shape, weight concerns and negative self-evaluation as a risk factor [21]. The primary purpose of the present study was to clarify the relationship between body Abstract Aim: This study aimed to identify specific interoceptive awareness dimensions related to the risk for eating disorders (ED) in a sample of female adolescents. Subjects and Method: A sample of 317 female adolescents (Mage=17.04±1.22) completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), the Psychophysiological Questionnaire (QPF-R), and the Eating Disorder Inventory 3 (EDI 3). The scores obtained at the MAIA subscales and the QPF-R were employed to predict the eating disorder risk composite score derived from the EDI-3. Results: The results showed that lower levels of self-regulation and trusting and higher levels of body listening significantly predicted the ED risk. Moreover, higher levels of enteric symptoms and lower levels of sympathetic symptoms were able to predict the ED risk in adolescents Conclusion: These findings point out the importance of discriminating the dimensions of interoceptive awareness for the assessment of ED risk and the central role of body signals’ awareness for the treatment of ED. Disorders in awareness risk. In particular, to investigate the role that the specific dimensions of interoceptive awareness, enteric, and sympathetic somatic symptoms cover in adolescence concerning ED risk. A risk factor paradigm for ED risks in adolescence is relevant to understand better the link between body attention and the development of symptoms related to the clinical or subclinical ED level. One of these studies investigates the multidimensional construct of interoceptive awareness and its relationship with ED risk factors in a non-clinical sample of adolescents. Moreover, to investigate whether the dimensions of interoceptive awareness, already emerged in the previous study as more related to ED [12], relate to ED risk. Furthermore, based on the results of the annual review on ED’s risk factors [21], another aim was to clarify the relationship between Enteric psychosomatic symptoms and ED risk. Therefore, based on the literature, our