Body Appreciation Scale: Evaluation of the Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties among Male and Female Turkish University Students

Abstract

The Body Appreciation Scale (BAS) was developed by Avalos, Tylka & Wood-Barcalow (2005) to determine body appreciation. The present study examined the factor structure of the BAS among Turkish women and men university students. For this purpose, confirmatory factor analysis (competing model analysis) was conducted to evaluate the factor structure the BAS. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis on 741 university student (431 women; 310 men) suggested that a two-factor model with four items deleted represents an adequate description of the data, and best of the factor model proposed. In terms of convergent validity of the scale a negative and significant correlation was found between body appreciation and social appearance anxiety for women and men samples. The Turkish version of the BAS demonstrated adequate internal consistency and composite reliability. Finally, findings from t-test analysis showed that the BAS scores did not differ according to gender.