Validation of the Chinese Version of the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale.

Min Lang,Yiduo Ye

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724187

Abstract

Given the limitations of the existing tools used for measuring self-objectification in China, this study aims to validate the Chinese version of the self-objectification beliefs and behaviors scale (C-SOBBS). In this study, we first translated and culturally adopted SOBBS to the Chinese context. We conducted two wave surveys. In the first-wave survey, we recruited 331 female college students whose age ranged from 18 to 35 (Mage=20.28, SD=2.99) to complete an online survey that included demographic questions, C-SOBBS, and four other scales to assess the validity of C-SOBBS. In the second-wave survey, 76 participants who took part in the first-wave survey completed the C-SOBBS at a two-week interval for the assessment of test-retest stability. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to validate the factor structure of the C-SOBBS. The relationship between the C-SOBBS, its factors, and four other measures demonstrated that the C-SOBBS has a convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results of hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated the C-SOBBS’s incremental validity related to the Female Questionnaire of Trait Self-Objectification and Objectified Body Consciousness-Surveillance subscale. Additionally, the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the C-SOBBS were also verified. The results of this study demonstrate the utility of the C-SOBBS in assessing the self-objectification beliefs and behaviors of young Chinese women within the context of Chinese culture.

Highlights

Bartky (1990) proposed the concept of sexual objectification and defined it as “the separation of one’s body, body parts, and sexual functions from one’s identity, thereby reducing a person to the status of an object.” Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) argued that western culture is full of sexual objectification, such as close-ups of women’s sexual body parts in various forms of visual media and men treating women as sexual objects even in interpersonal situations
The model provided an excellent fit for the sample, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.93, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.95, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06 [90% confidence interval (CI) (0.048, 0.073)], and χ2/df was statistically significant for the model, χ2/df = 2.19, p < 0.001
To prove that the two-factor model would be better than the single-factor model, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the one-factor structure of the 14-item C-Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS), GFI = 0.84, CFI = 0.86, RMSEA = 0.10

Summary

Introduction

Bartky (1990) proposed the concept of sexual objectification and defined it as “the separation of one’s body, body parts, and sexual functions from one’s identity, thereby reducing a person to the status of an object.” Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) argued that western culture is full of sexual objectification, such as close-ups of women’s sexual body parts in various forms of visual media and men treating women as sexual objects even in interpersonal situations. The predictive effect of self-objectification on body shame has been observed among young Chinese women (Sun and Zheng, 2016; Teng et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2020)

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion