Development of a Scale to Examine Responses to Bodily Sensations

Summary

This research developed and validated the Bodily Sensations Response Scale (BSRS), a self-report measure of how people cognitively, emotionally, and behaviourally respond to their own bodily sensations. Across two studies, the authors generated items and examined the scale's factor structure and psychometric properties. Analyses of the final 27-item measure supported two interpretable factors, labelled Defeat and Acceptance, reflecting contrasting styles of responding to internal bodily experiences. The subscales showed acceptable reliability and expected associations with related psychological constructs, supporting the scale's validity. The BSRS offers a tool for studying how responses to bodily sensations relate to health anxiety, symptom perception, and wellbeing.