Evaluating different versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire and invariance across age in Mexican women.

PURPOSE

To analyze the factorial structure of the eight short versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) and analyze the factorial invariance of the best model, its convergent validity and its internal consistency in three age groups of Mexican women.

METHODS

Women attending middle school (n = 261), high school (n = 245) and university (n = 296) participated in the study; their average age was 16.52 years (SD = 2.98), and they completed the BSQ, the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) and the Questionnaire on the Influences of the Aesthetic Body Ideal (CIMEC, its acronym in Spanish).

RESULTS

The BSQ-8D model showed the best goodness-of-fit indices and evidence for configural, metric, scalar and structural invariance. Both the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the Omega coefficient for the BSQ-8D were .89. Likewise, the BSQ-8D was correlated with the EAT-40 (r = .60, p < .001) and the CIMEC (r = .77, p < .001), and both the total score and its items discriminated between women with and without abnormal eating behaviors (p < .001).

CONCLUSION

The BSQ-8D has the best psychometric properties for the measurement of body dissatisfaction in the general population of Mexican women.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.