Interoception and Gender as Determinants of Electronic Communication Skills in Emerging Adults: A Two-Factor Analysis

Description

Pooja Ravikumar¹, Sandhya Aravind C.A.², and C. Jayan³ (Department of Psychology, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady Campus, Kerala^1,2 and Department of Psychology, Kariavattom Campus, Kerala³)

The importance of communication skills has been widely noted in research across all age groups. Emerging adults, being the population that transforms from students to professionals as they enter into their career path, social skills are even more crucial during this phase. The extensive use of digital media and social networking platforms in the operations of businesses and in most fields of work raises the need to possess sufficient electronic communication skills. This investigation emphasizes how interoceptive awareness (i.e., the ability to detect & regulate internal bodily needs) and gender impact the electronic communication skills in emerging adults within the online context (i.e., in the electronic mode of communication). A survey was employed in Kerala, among 2820 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years. The tools utilized were: the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (Mehling, 2018) and the electronic communication skills scale (Mantzouranis et al., 2019). By conducting a two-way analysis of variance, the main effects and interactive effects of interoception and gender on electronic communication skills were examined. The results demonstrated that gender and interoception alone, as well as in interaction, influenced electronic communication capacities. Men were found to be more interoceptively aware than women. In fact, the highly interoceptive men performed better on electronic communication. The evidence suggests that improving interoceptive skills can be instrumental in optimizing online social skills. Implementing interoception-based training programs within educational and work settings can help advance social skills.