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Similarities and Differences in Interoceptive Bodily Awareness Between US-American and Japanese Cultures: A Focus-Group Study in Bicultural Japanese-Americans

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Abstract

Interoceptive awareness is the conscious perception of sensations that create a sense of the physiological condition of the body. A validation study for the Japanese translation of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) surprised with a factor structure different from the original English-language version by eliminating two of eight scales. This prompted an exploration of the similarities and differences in interoceptive bodily awareness between Japanese and European Americans. Bicultural Japanese-Americans discussed concepts and experiences in the two cultures. We conducted focus groups and qualitative thematic analyses of transcribed recordings. 16 participants illustrated cross-cultural differences in interoceptive bodily awareness: switching between languages changes embodied experience; external versus internal attention focus; social expectations and body sensations; emphasis on form versus self-awareness; personal space; and mind–body relationship; context dependency of bodily awareness and self-construal. The participants explained key concepts that present challenges for a Japanese cultural adaptation of the MAIA, specifically the concept of self-regulation lost in the factor analysis. In Japanese culture, self-regulation serves the purpose of conforming to social expectations, rather than achieving an individual self-comforting sense of homeostasis. Our findings will inform the next phase of improving the MAIA’s cross-cultural adaptation.

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Data Availability

Dataset is uploaded at https://doi.org/10.7272/Q6XG9PCW.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Brook Wilken, PhD, who gave us valuable crosscultural advice in the early stages of the project and commented on an earlier draft of the manuscript. We thank Vierka Goldman for assisting with recruitment, phone screening, and consenting participants and Yvette Coulter with dedoose software programming. We thank Aya Doi and Hanna Marie Matsumoto, who helped with focus group logistics, recruitment outreach, translations and data entry. Seiji Ohno, MA, MA, SEP, MFT, formerly faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies, gave advice with cross-cultural Japanese behavioral concepts in the early stage of the project. We are deeply indebted to each of the sixteen participants of our focus groups.

Funding

This study was supported by a Grant (P30-AG015272) to A. Stewart by the National Institute of Aging.

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Author notes

  1. A. Freedman, H. Hu: co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Francisco, 1545 Divisadero Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA

    A. Freedman, S. Adler & W. E. Mehling

  2. California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, USA

    A. Freedman

  3. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    H. Hu

  4. Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    I. T. H. C. Liu

  5. Institute for Health and Aging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA

    A. L. Stewart

  6. Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA

    S. Adler & W. E. Mehling

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  1. A. Freedman
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  3. I. T. H. C. Liu
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Correspondence to W. E. Mehling.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Freedman, A., Hu, H., Liu, I.T.H.C. et al. Similarities and Differences in Interoceptive Bodily Awareness Between US-American and Japanese Cultures: A Focus-Group Study in Bicultural Japanese-Americans. Cult Med Psychiatry 45, 234–267 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-020-09684-4

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