Abstract
Postural awareness (PA) refers to a subjective conscious awareness of body posture and falls within the framework of mind–body integration. The aim of this research was to validate and evaluate psychometric properties of the Postural Awareness Scale (PAS) in an Italian population sample (n = 928; 45.04% men and 54.96% women; mean age = 29.96 years, standard deviation = 11.44). The results obtained with Velicer’s Minimum Average Partial Test, Horn’s Parallel Analysis, and exploratory factor analysis showed a two-factor solution, as supported by the confirmatory factor analysis: ease/familiarity with postural awareness and need for attention regulation with postural awareness. Furthermore, the findings highlighted both a good internal consistency (α = 0.76 for the total scale and α = 0.80, α = 0.79 for the two subscales) and a satisfactory construct validity. Furthermore, multivariate analysis of variance was carried out to assess differences in PA between specific subgroup. In particular, the positive effects of physical activity and healthy body weight were confirmed, whereas no significant differences related to gender or age were found. All these findings suggest that the Italian version of the PAS is a rapid instrument with good psychometric properties, which can be useful both for research and clinical practice.
Highlights
The postural awareness is “the subjective conscious awareness of body posture that is mainly based on proprioceptive feedback from the body periphery to the central nervous system” (Cramer et al, 2018b, paragraph 1)
The second factor consisted of six items related to high efforts required to be aware of their own body posture; it accounted for 23.18% of the total variance
The analysis showed that the subscales correlations with total Postural Awareness Scale (PAS) (z = −1.54, p = 0.124), the third factor of the TAS20 (z = −0.23, p = 0.817), and Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) (z = −0.46, p = 0.644) were not significantly different
Summary
The postural awareness is “the subjective conscious awareness of body posture that is mainly based on proprioceptive feedback from the body periphery to the central nervous system” (Cramer et al, 2018b, paragraph 1). It is a fundamental element for controlling posture in a process of adaptation based on sensory, motor, and cognitive aspects (Balasubramaniam and Wing, 2002). The field of trauma studies, for example, increasingly focuses on this reciprocal influence, describing somatically driven individuals, with strong emotions accompanied by dysregulated
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