My Exposed Body: Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale-7 among Women.

BACKGROUND

Social Physique Anxiety (SPA) is the anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of the interpersonal evaluation of one's physique. It is a construct related to body image and body esteem. The Social Physique Anxiety Scale-7 (SPAS-7) is a self-report scale aimed at measuring the degree of anxiety that people experience when others evaluate their physique.

METHODS

This study aimed to investigate the factor structure (through Confirmatory Factor Analysis followed by multi-group confirmatory factorial analyses), reliability, and convergent validity of an Italian version of the SPAS-7 among a sample of women ( = 520; mean age = 33.5, = 10.5).

RESULTS

Confirmatory Factor Analysis attested the unidimensional factorial structure of the SPAS-7, which achieved full invariance across age groups. The strength of the inter-relationships between the SPAS-7 and measures of negative (i.e., body dissatisfaction) and positive body image (i.e., body appreciation and body compassion) provided evidence of good convergent validity. The Cronbach's alpha was very good.

CONCLUSION

According to our results, the Italian version of the SPAS-7 could be a valid and agile instrument for assessing self-presentational concerns associated with body image among Italian-speaking women across age.