Body appreciation around the world: Measurement invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age

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Swami, Viren
Tran, Ulrich S
Stieger, Stefan
Aavik, Toivo
Ranjbar, Hamed Abdollahpour
Adebayo, Sulaiman Olanrewaju
Afhami, Reza
Ahmed, Oli
Aime, Annie
Akel, Marwan
Al Halbusi, Hussam
Alexias, George
Ali, Khawla F
Alp-Dal, Nursel
Alsalhani, Anas B
et al.
Griffith University Author(s)
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2023
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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.

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Body Image

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46

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© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Public health

Sociology

Social and personality psychology

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Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Psychology, Clinical

Psychiatry

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Swami, V; Tran, US; Stieger, S; Aavik, T; Ranjbar, HA; Adebayo, SO; Afhami, R; Ahmed, O; Aime, A; Akel, M; Al Halbusi, H; Alexias, G; Ali, KF; Alp-Dal, N; Alsalhani, AB; et al., 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, 2023, 46, pp. 449-466

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