Examination of the factorial model of a scale developed to assess body satisfaction in the Brazilian context: a study with people 18 to 40 years old

Abstract

Purpose Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to investigate an instrument developed to assess body satisfaction of Brazilian women and men and to identify participants' body satisfaction level. Methods Brazilian young adults completed the Body Satisfaction Situational Scale and a sociodemographic questionnaire. A total of 1481 individuals (female = 1035; male = 446) aged between 18 and 40 years old participated in the study. Factorial, convergent and discriminant validity and reliability were evaluated. An invariance test was performed across sexes using multi-group analysis. The prevalence of body satisfaction among participants was calculated using the final models of the instrument. Results The complete model of the scale (23 items and four factors) was invariant across sexes, but it did not fit the samples even after refinement. Therefore, a theoretical investigation of the scale content was performed based on literature. Thus, a reduced model composed of two factors and ten items was found for each sex. These models showed good validity and reliability to independent samples. About prevalence, most of the women were not at all satisfied with body fat and most of the men were slightly satisfied with body musculature. Further, women and men were moderately satisfied with their face, hair, and skin. Conclusion A reduced model of the instrument for women and another for men showed adequate indices of construct validity and reliability to samples. The most participants were not very satisfied with their bodies. The results can be useful to develop protocols aiming to promote body satisfaction. Level of evidence Level V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

Impact of body and orofacial appearance on life satisfaction among Brazilian adults

“…The component of dissatisfaction/satisfaction with body image was assessed by BSS [12]. This scale was originally developed in Portuguese [11] and contains 23 items with a 5-point Likert-type response scale (1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree) that assesses 4 factors: "dissatisfaction and fat", "external parts", "satisfaction and muscular condition", and "lower parts".…”

“…Measurement of the body image is challenging, as it requires instruments capable of capturing body valuation from the individual's perception and/or attitudes [7]. Considering the multidimensionality of body image and the diversity of instruments available to measure it [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], future studies aiming to evaluate different body image components simultaneously have become increasingly relevant.…”

“…They can be assessed by the Body Checking and Avoidance Questionnaire (BCAQ) [10]. Body Satisfaction Scale (BSS), with separate versions for women and men [12], measures individuals' satisfaction/dissatisfaction towards specific parts of their own body [11].…”

A Portuguese Adaptation of the Teruel Orthorexia Scale and a Test of Its Utility with Brazilian Young Adults

“…As there is no “gold standard” definition of orthorexia for establishing cutoff points for the TOS, we used percentiles of the participants’ responses on the Likert -type scale to classify individuals regarding the probability that they presented characteristics of pathological or non-pathological eating behaviors. This could be considered a study limitation, though this method has been adopted previously for other scales without established categories (da Silva et al., 2021). The use of percentiles allows the TOS to be applied in clinical and scientific studies to identify the frequency of orthorexia nervosa and healthy orthorexia behaviors/symptoms, but further clinical investigations are needed to support this proposal.…”

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale to the Portuguese language

“…The SAAS has been used in different countries, such as Germany 6 and Turkey 7 , where its psychometric properties were considered adequate. A SAAS Portuguese version is not available in the literature, and it could be useful in Brazil, as the population has been increasingly concerned with body image 8,9 , which may lead to anxiety and depression 10,11 . Therefore, it is a promising tool that can be used alone or in conjunction with other tools for tracking symptoms of social physical anxiety.…”