Abstract
Eating disorders and body image disturbance are known to result in unhealthy consequences. When attempting to understand the etiology and management of these disorders, sociocultural models of body image disturbance and disordered eating have been predominant. The objective of the present study was to develop and validate the Internalization of Sociocultural Body Ideals Scale (ISBIS), a psychometric instrument that utilizes items from various versions of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ). The ISBIS was developed to overcome some of the limitations found in existing instruments (including the SATAQ) that assess the internalization of sociocultural body ideals. The sample comprised 1130 students aged between 10 and 14 years. The psychometric properties of the ISBIS were examined using different analyses. The results supported the eight-item structure: four items for thin body ideal internalization and four items for thin body muscular/athletic internalization. The structure showed invariance to gender and achieved acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability indexes. Controlling for gender and body mass index, the results also showed that the internalization of the thin body ideal positively predicted social-physique anxiety in a statistically significant way. The results provide empirical evidence that the ISBIS is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing sociocultural body ideals in Spanish preadolescents.
Highlights
Eating disorders and body image disturbance are known to result in unhealthy consequences
The Internalization of Sociocultural Body Ideals Scale (ISBIS) was developed to overcome some of the limitations found in existing instruments that assess the internalization of sociocultural body ideals
Taking into account the aforementioned limitations, the purpose of the present study was to review the different versions of Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) to (a) isolate an assessment for the internalization of thin and muscular/athletic body ideals from other sociocultural risk factors for body image disturbance and eating disorders; (b) reduce the ambiguity of the assessment by not including reverse-worded items; (c) make the internalization process clearer to reflect “buying into” some of the socially sanctioned body ideals; (d) examine the factorial structure, the reliability, and the measurement invariance across a large community sample of 10- to 14-year-old females and males; and (e) examine criterion validity based on the relationship between internalization of sociocultural body ideals and social-physique anxiety (SPA)
Summary
Eating disorders and body image disturbance are known to result in unhealthy consequences. The literature that has examined social pressure has centered upon women and the consequences of searching for ideal of feminine beauty associated with thin-bodied models (Cusumano and Thompson 1997; Thompson and Stice 2001; Thompson et al 2004) This may be explained by the fact that women are more likely to be the targeted by their peers and the media to have “perfect bodies” compared with men leading to more negative consequences (e.g., eating disorders) among women than in men (Dakanalis et al 2017). Given the importance of body ideal internalization for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders and other unhealthy behaviors, it is essential to have appropriate and sensitive psychometric measures to assess this construct
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