An Initial Psychometric Evaluation and Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study of the Body Checking Questionnaire among Brazilian Women

Abstract

Body checking is considered an expression of an excessive preoccupation with appearance. The first aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Brazilian Portuguese version of the Body Checking Questionnaire (BCQ). Additionally, we wanted to examine the questionnaire’s associations with body avoidance behaviour, body mass index, dietary habits, and the intensity, frequency, and length of physical exercise. Finally, we also examined the differences between the total BCQ score and the individual BCQ factor scores. Differences between active and sedentary persons and between non-dieters and those on weight-loss diets were also analyzed. For the psychometric study, 546 female public university students from four different courses were surveyed. Two minor samples of university students and eating disorders women were also recruited. In the second part of the study, 403 women were recruited from weight-loss programs, gyms, and a university. All participants were verbally invited to participate in the research and voluntarily took part. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit to the original model of the Brazilian BCQ that retained all 23 items. Satisfactory evidence of construct validity and internal consistency were also generated through analysis of factor loadings, t-values, Cronbach’s alpha, and construct reliability tests. The results also showed associations among body checking and body avoidance, body satisfaction, social anxiety, body mass index, and the frequency and intensity of physical exercise. Significant differences were found between non-dieters and weight-loss dieters for all BCQ factors and the total BCQ score. For physically active and sedentary persons, a significant difference was only observed for idiosyncratic checking behaviour. In conclusion, the BCQ appears to be a valid and reliable scale for Brazilian research, and the associations and differences found in this study suggest that women at gyms and especially in weight-loss programs should be targeted for future body checking studies.

The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

“…Interestingly, in the HC group, higher avoidance in the BIAQ (our measure of BA) went along with higher zoomlevels for self-as well as other-pictures in the BIAT. This dovetails with the perplexing finding that some individuals report both body-related avoidance behavior on the BIAQ and frequent body checking (as evident from a positive correlation of both instruments in other samples (e.g., Campana et al, 2013;Legenbauer et al, 2017;Radix et al, 2018; and the present sample). We verified that control females were healthy via a structured clinical interview, nevertheless there seemed to be some behavioral body related avoidance or checking.…”

“…Second, it might also be that methodological issues of the BA self-report tool account for the lack of associations in ED. We used the BIAQ that has been developed in student samples and whose original structure has not been replicated in several studies (Legenbauer et al, 2007;Campana et al, 2013;Brytek-Matera and Rogoza, 2016). It has to be considered that within the German version, the original factor structure had not been replicated and that items in relation to eating loaded on a factor that reflects rather control than avoidance (Legenbauer et al, 2007).…”

The Spanish Body Image State Scale: Factor Structure, Reliability and Validity in a Colombian Population

“…This is accompanied by an increase in studies assessing the psychometric properties of body image measurements in different cultures and languages. Indeed, several instruments have been successfully translated to Spanish or Portuguese to assess inter alia body dissatisfaction (Castrillón Moreno et al, 2007), body checking/avoidance (Kachani et al, 2011; Campana et al, 2013) and positive body image (Swami et al, 2011; Alcaraz-Ibáñez et al, 2017) in Latin America.…”

Validierung einer deutschsprachigen Fassung des Body Checking Questionnaire (BCQ) an Jugendlichen mit Anorexia und Bulimia Nervosa

“…Er besteht aus 23 Items, die anhand einer 5-stufigen Likert-Skala beantwortet werden 1 . Der BCQ wurde u. a. in die Sprachen Deutsch [26], Portugiesisch [27], brasilianisches Portugiesisch [28], Norwegisch [29] und Italienisch [30] übersetzt und jeweils psychometrisch überprüft. Aktuell liegt eine Version für den deutschen Sprachraum vor, deren Güte teststatistisch für Erwachsene nachgewiesen wurde [26].…”