The Body Appreciation Scale-2: Item refinement and psychometric evaluation

• Published in: Body image Vol. 12; pp. 53 - 67
• Main Authors: Tylka, Tracy L., Wood-Barcalow, Nichole L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Amazon Mechanical Turk; Body appreciation; Body Image - psychology; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Male; Measurement invariance; Middle Aged; Personal Satisfaction; Positive body image; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Scale development; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Young Adult; Psychometrics; Positive body image; Scale development; Measurement invariance; Amazon Mechanical Turk; Body appreciation
• ISSN: 1740-1445; 1873-6807
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.09.006

•We developed the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) and explored its psychometrics.•The BAS-2 was internally consistent and stable across 3 weeks for U.S. women and men.•The BAS-2 evidenced construct (convergent, incremental, and discriminant) validity.•The BAS-2 was unidimensional across sex and sample type (college vs community).•The BAS-2's measurement invariance was upheld across sex and sample type. Considered a positive body image measure, the 13-item Body Appreciation Scale (BAS; Avalos, Tylka, & Wood-Barcalow, 2005) assesses individuals’ acceptance of, favorable opinions toward, and respect for their bodies. While the BAS has accrued psychometric support, we improved it by rewording certain BAS items (to eliminate sex-specific versions and body dissatisfaction-based language) and developing additional items based on positive body image research. In three studies, we examined the reworded, newly developed, and retained items to determine their psychometric properties among college and online community (Amazon Mechanical Turk) samples of 820 women and 767 men. After exploratory factor analysis, we retained 10 items (five original BAS items). Confirmatory factor analysis upheld the BAS-2's unidimensionality and invariance across sex and sample type. Its internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and construct (convergent, incremental, and discriminant) validity were supported. The BAS-2 is a psychometrically sound positive body image measure applicable for research and clinical settings.