Abstract
Despite growing interest in the beneficial effects of positive touch experiences throughout our lives, and individual differences in how these experiences are perceived, there is not yet available a contemporary self-report measure of touch experiences and attitudes, for which the factor structure has been validated. This article describes four studies carried out during the construction and validation of the Touch Experiences and Attitudes Questionnaire (TEAQ). The original TEAQ, containing 117 items relating to positive touch experiences was systematically constructed. Principal component analysis reduced this measure to 57 items and identified six components relating to touch experiences during childhood and adult experiences relating to current intimate touch and touch with friends and family. Three attitudinal components were identified relating to attitude to intimate touch, touch with unfamiliar people, and self-care. The structure of this questionnaire was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis carried out on data obtained from a second sample. Good concurrent and predictive validity of the TEAQ compared to other physical touch measures currently available was identified. Known-group validity in terms of gender, marital status and age was determined, with expected group differences identified. This study demonstrates the TEAQ to have good face validity, internal consistency, construct validity in terms of discriminant validity, known-group validity and convergent validity, and criterion-related validity in terms of predictive validity and concurrent validity. We anticipate this questionnaire will be a valuable tool for the field of physical touch research.
Highlights
Since the discovery C-tactile afferents (CTs) in humans by Nordin (1990), there has been growing interest in the role of positive touch experiences throughout our lives
This study identified a 6-component structure: one component related to interpersonal physical touch experiences and attitudes with friends and family, named friends and family touch (FFT)
The second component related to current levels of intimate touch experienced (Current Intimate Touch, current intimate touch (CIT)), relating to touch usually experienced between people who are emotionally close or in a romantic relationship
Summary
Since the discovery C-tactile afferents (CTs) in humans by Nordin (1990), there has been growing interest in the role of positive touch experiences throughout our lives. CTs are slowly conducting and their stimulation leads to activation of limbic-related brain regions, rather than the somatosensory cortex (Bjornsdotter et al 2009; McGlone et al 2014; Olausson et al 2002, 2008). Based on this evidence, CTs have been proposed to have a key role in encoding the rewarding properties of positive social touch (Morrison et al 2010). Manipulation of the temperature of these ‘mothers’ altered the response of the monkeys to their ‘mother’, with a warm mother (~ 24 °C) promoting attachment and a cool mother [~ 17 °C, sub-optimal for CT activation (Ackerley et al 2014)] inducing a stress response and no attachment (Harlow and Suomi 1970)
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