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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Publication Date

2023

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Ranjbar, Hamed Abdollahpour
Eskin, Mehmet
Javaid, Ayşe Nur Karkin

Co-Authors

Swami, Viren
Tran, Ulrich S.
Stieger, Stefan
Aavik, Toivo
Adebayo, Sulaiman Olanrewaju
Afhami, Reza
Ahmed, Oli
Aime, Annie
Akel, Marwan
Al Halbusi, Hussam

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Elsevier

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Journal Article
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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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Psychology, clinical, Psychiatry, Psychology, multidisciplinary

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