Original title: Tuning in: how interoception shapes body image across early adolescence
Mariana Von Mohr, Rosie Donaghy, Vivien Ainley, Abigail Agyemang +1 · September 2026
Early adolescence brings major physical changes, which can deeply challenge how young people view their bodies. Scientists wanted to see how body image connects to interoceptionThe sense of internal body states, like feeling your heartbeat or hunger., which is your ability to accurately sense internal body signals like your heartbeat. They studied girls going through different stages of puberty to track how this inner awareness relates to outside body feelings. They found that girls with lower interoceptive accuracyHow well someone can detect and perceive their own internal body signals. felt greater dissatisfaction with their bodies. In contrast, having higher accuracy protected girls against this dissatisfaction. This protective link became even stronger as girls reached more advanced pubertal stages. In short, tuning into inner physical signals helps shape conscious attitudes about personal appearance, pointing to a positive role for interoception in adolescent mental health.
Imagine you are cooking a complex meal. You need to taste the sauce as you go to know if it's right. If you can't taste well, you might add too much salt and ruin the dish. In this paper, the ability to sense your own heartbeat is like your ability to taste. Girls who are less accurate at sensing their heartbeat are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their bodies, especially as they go through a period of rapid change.
For girls aged 10-14, the ability to accurately sense internal body signals—like heartbeat—is linked to how satisfied they are with their bodies. This is especially important during later stages of puberty, when body image concerns often intensify. The findings suggest that training interoceptive awareness might be a new way to support mental health in early adolescence.
The study only included girls, so findings may not generalize to boys. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether lower interoceptive accuracy causes body dissatisfaction or vice versa. The sample size is moderate and from a specific age range.
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Tuning in: how interoception shapes body image across early adolescence — Mariana Von Mohr, Rosie Donaghy, Vivien Ainley et al. — PsyArXiv — doi:10.31234/osf.io/gzsbw_v3
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.