Body Appreciation Around the World: Measurement Invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Across 65 Nations, 40 Languages, Gender Identities, and Age
Version 2 2024-01-05, 15:17Version 2 2024-01-05, 15:17
Version 1 2023-08-02, 11:43Version 1 2023-08-02, 11:43
journal contribution
posted on 2024-01-05, 15:17authored byViren Swami, Ulrich S Tran, Stefan Stieger, Toivo Aavik, Hamed Abdollahpour Ranjbar, Sulaiman Olanrewaju Adebayo, Reza Afhami, Oli Ahmed, Annie Aimé, Marwan Akel, Hussam Al Halbusi, George Alexias, Khawla F Ali, Nursel Alp-Dal, Anas B Alsahani, Sara Álvares Solas, et al
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.