Assessing Body Esteem in Adolescents: psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Body Esteem Scale (BESAA-S)

Child & Youth Care Forum https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09705-w ORIGINAL PAPER Assessing Body Esteem in Adolescents: psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Body Esteem Scale (BESAA-S) Lucia Beltrán-Garrayo1 · Esther Mercado-Garrido1 Marta Rojo1 · Ana Rosa Sepúlveda1 · Francisco Javier Román1 · Accepted: 21 July 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract Background “How do I perceive my own body?“ is a central question during adolescence, which addresses the subjective assessment of body image, called Body Esteem. Although concern about body esteem increases during adolescence, there is a lack of psychometrically validated measures to assess it specifically among Spanish adolescents. Objective This study aims to validate the Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adult populations (BESAA), a widely used measure of body esteem across cultures, among the Spanish adolescent population. Methods The cross-cultural adequacy and acceptability of the Argentinian-Spanish version by Forbes et al., (2012) were pilot tested and the questionnaire was completed by 1,258 students (Mage = 15.56). Next, several psychometric analyses were carried out: exploratory (AFE) and confirmatory (CFA) factorial structure, convergent and discriminant validity, nomological validity, internal consistency, and temporal reliability. Results The AFE and CFA supported a reduced Spanish version of the BESAA of 14 items (BESAA-S) and maintained the original three-factor structure (BE-Weight, BE-Appearance, and BE-Attribution subscales). The BESAA-S showed acceptable internal consistency and strong test-retest reliability. Discriminant validity between subscales was appropriate, and convergent validity was appropriate except for the BE-Attribution subscale. Nomological validity was supported through significant correlations with body appreciation, general selfesteem, sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, and disordered eating symptoms. Body esteem was negatively associated with weight status. Conclusions This study presents a culturally appropriate, shortened Spanish BESAA as a reliable instrument for body esteem assessment among Spanish speaking adolescents. Keywords Body esteem · Body image · Measures validation · Psychometrics · Adolescents · Spanish Lucia Beltrán-Garrayo 1 Department of Biological and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain 13 Child & Youth Care Forum Introduction Body image refers to a broad and complex construct that includes perceptual, cognitiveaffective, and behavioral components (Sepúlveda et al., 2002; Slade, 1994). Its perceptual area is called body esteem (BE) and is defined as the subjective assessment of one’s body (Mendelson et al., 2001). Adolescence is a risky period in which changes in body shape and body fat occur while adolescents are under sociocultural pressures to achieve the aesthetic ideal (Voelker et al., 2015). In addition, low levels of BE are found at this developmental stage (Bucchianeri et al., 2013; Holmqvist et al., 2007; Mak et al., 2012), especially among adolescents with a higher weight status (Moradi et al., 2020; Sagar & Gupta, 2018; Sander et al., 2021; Voelker et al., 2015). As low BE is related to psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, body shame, low self-esteem, and disordered eating (Bornioli et al., 2021; Forbes et al., 2012; Mendelson et al., 2002; Rousseau et al., 2015; Sander et al., 2021), it is of utmost importance to accurately assess BE during adolescence through culturally suitable assessment instruments. While several measures have been developed to assess body image in the Spanish population (Botella et al., 2009; Jáuregui & Bolaños, 2011), certain BE scales have not shown adequate psychometric properties in the Spanish adolescent population (Jorquera et al., 2005). The Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) (Mendelson et al., 2001) is one of the most widely used instruments for the assessment of BE (Kling et al., 2019). It was introduced by Mendelson et al., (1997) as an adaption of the existing Body Esteem Scale (BES) for children (Mendelson & White, 1993). The BESAA aims to assess BE among adolescent and youth populations, an age range that is not covered by other scales commonly used for a similar purpose (Franzoi & Shields, 1984; Mendelson et al., 2001). It explores three different domains of BE: (1) BE-Appearance (general feeling about one’s appearance); (2) BE-Weight (satisfaction with weight); and (3) BE-Attribution (evaluations of one’s body and appearance that are attributed to others, that is, what one thinks the opinions of people are about one’s body and appearance) (Mendelson et al., 1997). In 2001, the BESAA was validated as a 23-item self-reported questionnaire in a Canadian sample (12–25 years; M = 16.8 years). The factor analysis with oblique rotation corroborated a three-factor structure and good psychometric properties (Mendelson et al., 2001). Since then, the BESAA has been validated in several countries such as Italy (Confalonieri et al., 2008), Iceland (Jónsdóttir et al., 2008), France (Rousseau et al., 2015; Valls et al., 2011), Turkey (Arslan et al., 2020), and India (Garbett et al., 2021). Additionally, it was translated into Spanish for use in an Argentinean sample (Forbes et al., 2012), but psychometric validation was not reported. There is some discussion regarding the psychometric structure of the scale (see Supplementary File 1 for a detailed comparison between validations). For instance, the Italian (Confalioneri et al., 2008) and Turkish validations (Arslan et al., 2020) proved the original three-factor structure after omitting nine and eight items, respectively, due to the overloading of items on more than one factor. Furthermore, the Icelandic validation replicated the three-factor structure, although some of the items that were loaded on the scales differed from those of the original (Jonsdottir et al., 2008). The BE-Attribution factor showed the weakest psychometric properties across studies, and the French versions did not identify this latent construct through factor analyses (Rousseau et al., 2015; Valls et al., 2011). Precisely for this reason, the English-language Indian validation conducted the factor analysis 13 Child & Youth Care Forum without the attribution factor (Garbett et al., 2021). Despite not having been validated, the Spanish version by Forbes et al., (2012) has been used in the Spanish adolescent population (Prieler et al., 2021). Since the influences of culture on BE have been well established (Holmqvist et al., 2007; Skorek et al., 2014), it is of the utmost significance to adopt a crosscultural validation process to ensure the validity and reliability of this measure within the Spanish population. Present Study In the current study, we aimed to culturally validate the BESAA (Mendelson et al., 2001) within a Spanish adolescent population. First, we sought to examine Span (...truncated)