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Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age

Viren Swami, Ulrich S. Tran, Stefan Stieger, Toivo Aavik, Hamed Abdollahpour Ranjbar, Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo, Reza Afhami, Oli Ahmed, Annie Aimé, Marwan Akel, …
Body Image, Vol.46, pp.449-466
2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.010
PMID: 37582318
Appears in  UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection
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Body appreciation around the world Measurement invariance of the Body1.57 MBDownloadView
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.010View
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Abstract

Body appreciation Body appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Cross-cultural Measurement invariance Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) Psychometrics Structural analysis UniSC Diversity Area - LGBTIQ+ and Community
The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research.

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