Department of Pediatrics, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Department of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2019 Jul 30;17(1):134. doi: 10.1186/s12955-019-1198-6.
The psychosocial consequences of obesity are important but often underrated. The Attitudes Toward Obese Persons (ATOP) and Beliefs About Obese Persons (BAOP) scales used to measure weight-related bias have little psychometric information, especially in East Asian contexts. The objective of this study was to use rigorous statistical methods to demonstrate the psychometric properties of these two instruments in Hong Kong and Taiwanese college students.
A convenience sample of 707 students was recruited from the universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Several competing confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted to confirm the factorial structure of the ATOP and BAOP. The best fit models for the ATOP and BAOP were chosen for the examination of the measurement invariance across subcultures. We then compared configurable models with or without loading and/or intercept constrained before correlating the latent constructs between the best models for the ATOP and BAOP.
The comparison in multiple CFAs found that the model with one factor and two correlated-wording-method factors outperformed the other models for both the ATOP and BOAP. However, the internal consistency was suboptimal (ATOP: α = .56 to .80; BTOP: α = .57 to .65) and the measurement invariance was somewhat unsupported among the Hong Kong and Taiwan samples. Moreover, after controlling wording effects, the latent construct of the ATOP was moderately associated with that of BAOP (r = .356; p < .001).
Chinese versions of the ATOP and BAOP can be treated as a unidimensional factor for use in Hong Kong and Taiwan university students. However, further refinements of both instruments may be needed before using them to capture the social attitudes and beliefs toward obesity individuals, which is expected to advance our understanding of weight-related bias in East Asian contexts.
肥胖的心理社会后果很重要，但往往被低估。用于衡量与体重相关的偏见的态度量表（Attitudes Toward Obese Persons，ATOP）和肥胖者信念量表（Beliefs About Obese Persons，BAOP）的心理测量信息很少，特别是在东亚背景下。本研究的目的是使用严格的统计方法来证明这两个工具在香港和台湾大学生中的心理测量特性。
从香港和台湾的大学中抽取了 707 名学生的便利样本。进行了几种具有竞争力的验证性因素分析（Confirmatory Factor Analysis，CFA），以确认 ATOP 和 BAOP 的因子结构。选择 ATOP 和 BAOP 的最佳拟合模型，以检验亚文化之间的测量不变性。然后，在比较 ATOP 和 BAOP 的最佳模型之间的潜在结构的相关性之前，比较了有无加载和/或截距约束的可配置模型。
多项 CFA 的比较发现，对于 ATOP 和 BAOP，具有一个因素和两个相关的措辞方法因素的模型优于其他模型。然而，内部一致性不理想（ATOP：α=0.56 至 0.80；BTOP：α=0.57 至 0.65），并且在香港和台湾样本中，测量不变性有些不支持。此外，在控制措辞效应后，ATOP 的潜在结构与 BAOP 的潜在结构中度相关（r=0.356；p<0.001）。
ATOP 和 BAOP 的中文版本可以作为香港和台湾大学生的单一维度因素使用。然而，在使用这些工具来捕捉对肥胖个体的社会态度和信念之前，可能需要进一步改进这两个工具，这有望增进我们对东亚背景下与体重相关的偏见的理解。
