Body image among female university students in Turkey: concurrent translation and validation of three body image measures

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to translate into Turkish and validate three measures of body image for women, namely the Photographic Figure Rating Scale, the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS) and the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3). A total of 501 female undergraduates from Ankara completed Turkish versions of the aforementioned scales, along with Turkish versions of measures of life satisfaction and self-esteem. Participants also reported their body mass index (BMI). Factor analytic results showed that the BAS reduced to a single dimension, whereas the SATAQ-3 reduced to four dimensions; these factor structures were similar to those observed among various Western samples. Further analyses showed that most respondents (55.6%) wanted to be thinner. The translated scales showed good patterns of validity, insofar as scores were significantly correlated with life satisfaction, self-esteem and BMI, and can be recommended for the assessment of body image among Turkish-speaking...