We examined the psychometric properties of a Romanian translation of the 10-item Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2). A total of 453 university students from Romania completed the BAS-2, along with measures of disordered eating, self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and subjective happiness. In addition, a separate sample of university students (N=109) completed only the BAS-2 at two time-points three weeks apart. Principal-axis factor analysis indicated that BAS-2 scores had a one-dimensional factor structure in both women and men. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that this factor structure had adequate fit, but invariance across sex was not supported. Further analyses indicated that BAS-2 scores evidenced internal consistency, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability in both women and men. These results suggest that BAS-2 scores reduce to one dimension in Romanian adults, but the lack of sex invariance may indicate that the same latent construct is not being measured in women and men.
We examined the psychometric properties of a Romanian translation of the 15-item Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS). Male university students from Romania (N = 343) completed the DMS, as well as measures of self-esteem, body appreciation, and muscle discrepancy. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that DMS scores reduced to two factors that related to muscularity-oriented attitudes and behaviours, with both first-order factors loading onto a higher-order factor. However, confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a model with two first-order factors and a higher-order factor had poor fit. A two-factor model without a higher-order construct achieved acceptable but mediocre fit. Scores on the two-factor DMS model had adequate internal consistency and demonstrated acceptable convergent validity (significant correlations with self-esteem, body appreciation, and muscle discrepancy). These results provide support for a two-factor model of DMS scores in a Romanian-speaking sample and extends the availability of the DMS to a rarely-examined linguistic group.
The construct of intuitive eating is most often measured using the 23-item Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2). Here, we examined the psychometrics of a Romanian translation of the IES-2. Eight-hundred-and-thirty Romanian adults completed the IES-2 along with measures of positive body image, symptoms of disordered eating, and psychological well-being. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) with a split-half subsample (n = 420) indicated that IES-2 scores reduced to three factors in women and four in men, both of which diverged from the parent model. Confirmatory factor analysis with a second split-half sample (n = 410) indicated that the parent model had poor fit indices, whereas fit of the EFA-derived models were acceptable but not uniformly ideal. Scores on the 3-factor model - which had comparatively better fit of the models tested - had adequate internal consistency and evidenced scalar invariance across gender. However, evidence of test-retest reliability after four weeks (n = 205) was poor and evidence of construct validity, assessed through correlations with additional measures included in the survey, was weak at best. Based on these results, we question the degree to which the construct of intuitive eating can be applied to nations undergoing nutrition transitions.
The Functionality Appreciation Scale (FAS; Alleva et al., 2017) is a 7-item measure of an individual's appreciation of their body for what it can do and is capable of doing. Although the instrument is increasingly used in interventionist studies, its psychometric properties have been infrequently investigated outside Anglophone populations. Here, we examined psychometric properties of a novel Romanian translation of the FAS. An online sample of 959 Romanian adults (18-73 years old) completed the Romanian FAS, and validated measures of positive body image (body appreciation), negative body image (weight discrepancy in women, drive for muscularity in men), eating disorder symptomatology, and psychological well-being (self-esteem, gratitude). Exploratory factor analyses led to the extraction of a 1-dimensional model of FAS scores, which we confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. FAS scores achieved scalar invariance across sex, but the sex difference in latent FAS scores did not reach significance (d = 0.15). FAS scores had adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability up to four weeks, and further analyses provided evidence of convergent, construct, and incremental validity. These results support the psychometric properties of the Romanian FAS and present evidence of the importance of functionality appreciation in relation to healthier body image and psychological well-being.
The Breast Size Satisfaction Survey (BSSS) was established to assess women's breast size dissatisfaction and breasted experiences from a cross-national perspective. A total of 18,541 women were recruited from 61 research sites across 40 nations and completed measures of current-ideal breast size discrepancy, as well as measures of theorised antecedents (personality, Western and local media exposure, and proxies of socioeconomic status) and outcomes (weight and appearance dissatisfaction, breast awareness, and psychological well-being). In the total dataset, 47.5 % of women wanted larger breasts than they currently had, 23.2 % wanted smaller breasts, and 29.3 % were satisfied with their current breast size. There were significant cross-national differences in mean ideal breast size and absolute breast size dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small (η2 = .02-.03). The results of multilevel modelling showed that greater Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness, lower Western media exposure, greater local media exposure, lower financial security, and younger age were associated with greater breast size dissatisfaction across nations. In addition, greater absolute breast size dissatisfaction was associated with greater weight and appearance dissatisfaction, poorer breast awareness, and poorer psychological well-being across nations. These results indicate that breast size dissatisfaction is a global public health concern linked to women's psychological and physical well-being.
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.