Body Appreciation Around the World: Measurement Invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Across 65 Nations, 40 Languages, Gender Identities, and Age

Authors

Viren Swami, Anglia Ruskin University
Ulrich S. Tran, University of Vienna
Stefan Stieger, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
Toivo Aavik, University of Tartu
Hamed Abdollahpour Ranjbar, Koç University
Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo, Ekiti State University
Reza Ahfami, Tarbiat Modares University
Oli Ahmed, University of Chittagong
Annie Aimé, Université de Québec en Outaouais
Marwan Akel, INSPECT-LB: National Institute of Public Health, Lebanon
Hussam Al Halbusi, Ahmed Bin Mohammad Military College
George Alexias, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Khawla F. Ali, Royal College of Surgeons, Bahrain
Nursel Alp-Dal, Munzur University
Anas B. Alsalhani, Vision College of Dentistry and Nursing
Sara Álvares-Solas, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam
Ana Carolina Soares Almaral, Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Southeast Minas Gerais
Sonny Andrianto, Universitas Islam Indonesia
Trefor Aspden, Aberystwyth University
David A. Frederick, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-13-2023

Abstract

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset – with data collected between 2020 and 2022 – to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research.

Comments

This article was originally published in Body Image, volume 46, in 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.010

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Recommended Citation

Swami, V., Tran, U. S., Steiger, S., Aavik, T., Ranjbar, H. A., Adebayo, S. O., Afhami, R., Ahmed, O., Aimé, A., Akel, M., Al Halbusi, H., Alexias, G., Ali, K.F., Alp-Dal, N., Alsalhani, A. B., Álvares-Solas, S., Amaral, A. C. S., Andrianto, S., Aspden, T., Argyrides, M., et al. (2023). Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age. Body Image, 46, 449-466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.010

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Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.