Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ)

The Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) is an objectively scored 18-item self-report instrument suitable for use with college students and nonstudent adults. It was designed to assess self-reported attentiveness to ordinary non-emotive body processes, specifically an individual’s sensitivity to body cycles and rhythms, detection of small changes in normal body functioning, and anticipation of bodily reactions. Respondents are asked to indicate, on a 7-point Likert scale, the extent to which each item is true for them. A higher mean score reflects higher belief in one’s sensitivity to bodily cues. Since its development, the BAQ has been translated into at least 13 other languages and remains the most reliable (Cronbach’s alpha consistently above 0.80 across published studies), easily scored, brief assessment of self-reported interoception and body awareness. The BAQ’s limitations primarily include its development with an exclusively US sample of young and middle-aged adults. Strategies are discussed in this chapter for developing and validating a revised BAQ that would offer greater sensitivity to culture (broadly construed) and social identity as viewed through an intersectional lens. Finally, new lines of research are suggested that relate to emotion, health and well-being, mindfulness, and other topics that are emerging from a renewed research interest in interoception over the past two decades.