Development and validation of the Social Touch Experiences and

Attitudes Questionnaire-Chinese version (STEAQ-C): How

interpersonal touch relates to subclinical traits and symptoms

Han-yu Zhou
hyzhou@psy.ecnu.edu.cn
Introduction
• The importance of social touch
• earliest and probably the most universal form of human
nonverbal communication
• Human development, especially during infancy
• convey, induce and regulate emotions

• The specialized neural pathway of social touch

(Suvilehto et al., 2023)
• Affective touch vs. discriminative touch
• C-tactile (vs. Aβ afferents) nerve afferents; hairy skin; speeds
of 1–10 cm/s, warmth similar to skin temperature
• Posterior insular processing; oxytocin and endogenous
opioids release
• Pleasant feelings, prosocial behaviors and buffering of pain
and stress
Introduction
• Individual differences in social touch
• Age, gender, relationships, culture (Sorokowska et al., 2021; Suvilehto et al., 2023), and personal history
of touch experiences (Sailer and Ackerley, 2019)
• Childhood trauma, e.g., neglect and early touch experiences valued as negative (Tesarz et al.,
2016)
• Neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD) and psychiatric conditions (depression, negative
schizotypy/social anhedonia): aberrant perception of social touch and fewer affectionate touch
experiences (e.g., Cascio et al., 2019; Tinker et al., 2023)
Introduction
• Measurements of social touch
• Social Touch Questionnaire (STQ),
assesses individual attitudes toward touch in
both positive and negative social settings (Wilhelm
et al., 2001). Portuguese (Vieira et al., 2016) and a
shorter 15-item German (Lapp et al., 2020) version.
• Touch Experiences and Attitudes
Questionnaire (TEAQ), 57 items measuring
social touch experiences at present and during
childhood, as well as attitudes towards both
intimate and unfamiliar touch (Trotter et al., 2018).
• Limitations: (1) attitude to self-care; (2) cultural
differences
Introduction
• The aims of the current study
• Construction and validation of the “Social Touch Experiences and Attitudes
Questionnaire – Chinese Version” (STEAQ-C)
• Item pool generation; Principal component analysis to explore the structure
• internal consistency, test-retest reliability; convergent and discriminant validity, and also criterion-
related validity

• To explore how different aspects of social touch were related to a range of

subclinical symptoms and traits (i.e., autistic traits, negative schizotypal traits,
social anxiety, depression and anxiety) in the general population (using network
analysis)
Study 1 Construction of the STEAQ-C
• Participants
• 589 young people (409 males; Mage = 25.34 years, SD = 5.12, range 18-40 years)
• Completed the initial version of the 56-item STEAQ-C

• Item generation
• Referring to the two previous scales available (i.e., the TEAQ and the STQ)
• Framework: relationship between the toucher and touchee (touch with intimate partners, touch with
family and friends, and more public touch with unfamiliar persons); circumstances in which social
touch occurs (greeting, emotion sharing and regulation, intimacy and other possible daily activities).
• For each toucher-touchee relationship and circumstance, 2 items were produced: one to measure the
amount of touch experiences and/or the attitude an individual has towards giving that touch, the other to
determine the attitude of receiving that touch from someone else.
• Besides the items for current touch experiences and attitude, items for childhood touch experiences
• Four-point Likert scale of agreement
Study 1 Construction of the STEAQ-C
• Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
• To determine how many principal components to extract, the Cattell’s scree plot (Cattell, 1966)
combined with the Horn’s parallel test (Horn, 1965) were used.

• Items were removed based on the following standards:

(1) redundant items correlating r > 0.8 with another item;

(2) items with communities (i.e., the proportion of common variance) < 0.4 (Field, 2013);

(3) items with component loadings < 0.4 for all components (Stevens, 1992);

(4) items loading similarly on two components (discrepancy between the primary loading and
secondary loading < 0.10);

(5) items whose meaning is incongruent with most of the other items within the same factor.
Study 1 Construction of the STEAQ-C
• A total of 13 items did not meet the inclusion criteria and were deleted.
Example items
• The final 43-item STEAQ-C had a four-factor structure, which explained 54.16% of the total
I like
variance. The factor loadings to greet
ranged frommy0.550
significant other with a hug or a kiss. (ST_I)
to 0.794.
When my family members or friends are sad, I would comfort or encourage them by
hugging, patting their heads and shoulders, and initiating other forms of physical
① Social touch within intimate relationships (ST_I) (16 items)
contact. (ST_F)
② Social touch with family
Whenand I wasfriends
a child,(ST_F) (12used
my family items)
to play games with me that involved physical
contact(ST_C)
③ Social touch in childhood (e.g., piggyback).
(8 items) (ST_C)
I do not(7
④ Public social touch (ST_P) like crowded places because I cannot stand physical contacts with strangers,
items)
even if they are unintentional. (ST_P)

• The three components relating to social touch with familiar people (ST_I, ST_F and ST_C) had
moderate-to-strong positive correlations with each other (rs > .60, p < .001).
• The Public Social Touch (ST_P) dimension had negligible correlations with the other three
subscales.
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Participants
• 534 adults, 63.7% females, and a mean age of 22.47 years (SD = 3.47, range 18-40 years)
• A subgroup of 127 participants (49 males, Mage = 22.33 years, SD = 3.63) took part in the survey 4-6
weeks later (test-retest reliability)

• Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA)

• test the four-factor model derived from Study 1
Fit indices: χ²/df =
2.309, RMSEA = 0.050,
SRMR = 0.047, CFI =
0.907, TLI = 0.902
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Internal consistency and test-retest reliability
• Good internal reliability: Cronbach's alpha = 0.937 for the STEAQ-C and
ranged 0.861-0.942 for the four subscales.
• Stability: The test-retest reliability was estimated via intra-class correlation
coefficients (ICCs). The ICC for the STEAQ-C total score over a 4-to-6-week
interval was 0.687 (p < 0.001, n = 127), and the ICC for all the four subscales
were > 0.60 (ST_I: 0.710; ST_F: 0.683; ST_C: 0.693 ST_P: 0.602, ps < .001).
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Convergent and discriminant Validity
Measures Description
Convergent Validity AASP-total Sensory response patterns
Low registration
Sensory seeking
Sensory hypersensitivity
Sensory avoidance
CTQ-total Childhood trauma
Emotion abuse
Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Emotion neglect
Physical neglect
TIPI-C Personality traits
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Discriminant Validity BBIS Impulsivity
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Convergent and discriminant Validity
• Negative correlations with childhood trauma (CTQ), especially for the emotion neglect
subscale (r = -0.447, p < .001).
• Sensory patterns (AASP): positive correlation with sensory seeking (r = 0.478, p < .001);
negative association with hypersensitivity (r = -0.396, p < .001), sensory avoidance (r = -0.391, p
< .001) and hyposensitivity (r = -0.218, p < .001).
• Personality traits (TIPI-C): moderate positive correlation with extraversion (r = 0.452, p
< .001) and negative correlation with neuroticism (r = -0.302, p < .001).

• As for the discriminant validity, the total and subscale scores of the STEAQ-C, significantly
and negatively correlated with the BBIS score (impulsivity) at a low magnitude (rs = -0.21~-
0.34, p < .001).
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Criterion-related Validity
Measures Description
Criterion-related and incremental RAAS Adult attachment
validity Close-Depend Attachment
Anxiety Attachment
TSBI Social competence / self-esteem

SAD-total Social anxiety

SAD-distress
SAD-avoidance

• Concurrent validity
• moderate negative correlation with the severity of social anxiety (r = -0.456, p < .001). (ST_P)
• moderate positive correlation with the Close-Depend attachment dimension (r = 0.582, p < .001) and a moderate
negative correlation with the Anxiety attachment dimension (r = -0.311, p < .001) (ST_F, ST_P)
• Positive correlation with social competence (r = 0.507, p < .001) (ST_P)
Study 2 Validation of the STEAQ-C
• Network analysis
Discussion
• The structure of the STEAQ-C
• 3 factors of current touch experiences and attitude+ 1 factor of childhood touch
 The influences of contextual factors (familiarity, intimacy) (Suvilehto et al., 2023)
 Childhood touch experiences

• Convergent validity
• ↓ sensory over-responsiveness, sensory hyposensitivity and sensory avoidance; ↑sensory seeking (e.g., look
for more sensory stimulation and touch people more often to feel organized in their own bodies and
connected with others)
• Emotional neglect (the failure of caregivers to provide adequate emotional support, validation, and
attention to a child) showed the largest overlap with the lack of childhood touch experiences (Trotter et al.,
2018)

• Discriminant validity
• Unexpected correlation with impulsivity
• Positive touch experiences (social support) better emotion regulation  less impulsivity and
better self-control (Shamay-Tsoory and Eisenberger, 2021)
Discussion
• Criterion-related validity
• Concurrent and predictive associations with secure attachment, lower social anxiety and higher
social competence
 Social touch as a miniature window to spy upon an individual’s social behavior
 High self-efficacy in handling different social interactions and resolving interpersonal conflicts,
improved relationship satisfaction (Lapp et al., 2020; Vieira et al., 2016; Wilhelm et al., 2001)

• Interconnections between social touch and various subclinical symptoms

• Public touch and social anxiety;
• Physical anhedonia (Chan et al., 2012) and touch within intimate relationships
• Social anhedonia and childhood touch (Suvilehto et al., 2023)
• Autistic traits were linked to both familiar and unfamiliar touch (Wada et al., 2023)
• Negligible connection with emotional states
Conclusion
This study provides evidence for the satisfactory reliability and validity of the STEAQ-C.

We hope this scale can serve as a useful tool in assessing social touch experiences and attitudes in
Eastern cultures.

Take home messages

How to construct a questionnaire

How to examine the reliability and validity of a newly-developed questionnaire