The Development of the Internalization of Sociocultural Body Ideals Scale Using Items From the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire: Validity, Reliability, and Measurement Invariance Testing

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.