Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) translation of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2)
Introduction
In the past decade, there has been a dramatic growth in interest in the concept of positive body image (see Daniels et al., 2018), particularly as accumulating evidence suggests that positive and negative body image are independent constructs that do not necessarily fall along the same continuum (for reviews, see Tylka, 2011, 2012, 2018; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015a). A core facet of positive body image is the construct of body appreciation, which can be defined as “accepting, holding favorable opinions toward, and respecting the body, while also rejecting media-promoted appearance ideals as the only form of human beauty” (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015a, p. 53). The construct was originally measured using the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), a 13-item measure with scores that were found to be one-dimensional in samples of U.S. adults (Avalos, Tylka, & Wood-Barcalow, 2005). A later study further reported that this one-dimensional factor structure was invariant across U.S. college women and men (Tylka, 2013).
However, not all studies have been able to reproduce the one-dimensional factor structure of BAS scores (e.g., Swami & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2008; Swami, Campana et al., 2011; Swami, Kannan, & Furnham, 2011). In particular, translational studies conducted with several non-English-speaking samples suggested that BAS scores were better conceptualised as two-dimensional, consisting of body appreciation and body image investment components, respectively (for a review, see Swami, 2018). Tylka and Wood-Barcalow (2015b) identified additional limitations of the BAS, including low item-factor loadings on some items, differential wording on one item for women and men, and item-content that had not kept pace with developments in the field of positive body image. To overcome these limitations, Tylka and Wood-Barcalow (2015b) refined the BAS by deleting several poor-performing items and developing additional items that better reflected the concept of positive body image, as contemporaneously understood. The result of this refinement was the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), a 10-item measure consisting of 5 items from the original BAS and 5 new items.
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with college and community samples from the U.S. indicated that scores on the BAS-2 had a one-dimensional factor structure, as well as good test-retest reliability over a 3-week period, adequate internal consistency coefficients, and good convergent, incremental, and discriminant validity (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015b). Scores on the measure have also been found to be invulnerable to priming in Canadian university women (Dignard & Jarry, 2019). In addition, the one-dimensional factor structure of BAS-2 scores has been upheld in a wide range of non-English-speaking groups (for a partial review, see Swami, 2018). Thus, EFA studies have supported the one-dimensional structure of BAS-2 scores in college samples from Hong Kong (Swami & Ng, 2015), Iran (Atari, 2016), the Netherlands (Alleva, Martijn, Veldhuis, & Tylka, 2016), and the United Arab Emirates (Vally, D’Souza, Habeeb, & Bensumaidea, 2018), and a community sample from Serbia (Jovic, Sforza, Jovanonic, & Jovic, 2017). Additional support for the one-dimensional factor structure of BAS-2 scores comes from CFA studies with a mixed staff-and-student sample from mainland China (Swami, Barron, Lau, & Jaafar, 2016; Swami, Ng, & Barron, 2016), college samples from France (Kertechian & Swami, 2017), Iran (Hosseini, Karimi, & Rabiei, 2018), Japan (Namatame, Uno, & Sawamiya, 2017), and Romania (Swami, Tudorel, Goian, Barron, & Vintila, 2017; Swami, García, & Barron, 2017), adolescents from Brazil (Ibáñez, Cren Chiminazzo, Sicilia Camacho, & Teíxeira Fernándes, 2017), Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden (Lemoine et al., 2018), teachers from Turkey (Anlı, Akın, Eker, & Özcelik, 2017), and community samples from Poland (Razmus & Razmus, 2017) and Spain (Swami, Tudorel et al., 2017; Swami, García et al., 2017).
In the parent study, Tylka and Wood-Barcalow (2015b) also reported that BAS-2 scores achieved full measurement (i.e., configural, metric, and scalar) invariance between women and men. However, examinations of sex invariance in other cultural groups have returned more equivocal results. Full measurement invariance between women/girls and men/boys was demonstrated in samples from China (Swami, Barron et al., 2016), France (Kertechian & Swami, 2017), Japan (Namatame et al., 2017), Poland (Razmus & Razmus, 2017), Spain (Swami, García et al., 2017), Portugal, and Sweden (Lemoine et al., 2018). On the other hand, only partial scalar invariance was demonstrated with adolescents from Brazil (Ibáñez et al., 2017) and Denmark (Lemoine et al., 2018), and only metric but not scalar invariance was obtained with a sample from Romania (Swami, García et al., 2017). Likewise, where sex differences on BAS-2 scores have been examined, results have been mixed: no significant differences were reported between women and men from China (d = 0.16; Swami, Barron et al., 2016), Poland (d < 0.01; Razmus & Razmus, 2017), and Spain (d = 0.04; Swami, García et al., 2017), whereas other studies have reported that men and boys have significantly higher scores than women and girls (Atari, 2016; Ibáñez et al., 2017; Kertechian & Swami, 2017; Lemoine et al., 2018), although effect sizes have generally been small-to-moderate (ds = 0.15–0.48).
More conclusive has been evidence of the construct validity of BAS-2 scores across cultural and linguistic groups. BAS-2 scores are consistently positively associated with indices of well-being, including self-esteem (Alleva et al., 2016; Atari, 2016; Lemoine et al., 2018; Namatame et al., 2017; Razmus & Razmus, 2017; Swami & Ng, 2015; Swami, García et al., 2017; Swami, Barron et al., 2016; Swami, García et al., 2017), life satisfaction (Atari, 2016; Ibáñez et al., 2017; Namatame et al., 2017; Swami & Ng, 2015; Swami, García et al., 2017; Swami, Barron et al., 2016; Swami, García et al., 2017), subjective happiness (Swami, García et al., 2017), gratitude (Homan & Tylka, 2018), psychological well-being (Lemoine et al., 2018; Swami, Weis, Barron, & Furnham, 2018), and positive life orientation (Alleva et al., 2016; Razmus & Razmus, 2017). In addition, BAS-2 scores are significantly and positively associated with scores on measures of appearance and body satisfaction (Alleva et al., 2016; Alleva, Paraskeva, Craddock, & Diedrichs, 2018), body areas satisfaction (Swami, García et al., 2017), and body pride (Razmus & Razmus, 2017; Vally et al., 2018), and negatively correlated with internalisation of the thin ideal (Jovic, Sforza, Jovanovic, & Jovic, 2017), symptoms of disordered eating (Marta-Simões & Ferreira, 2019; Namatame et al., 2017; Swami, García et al., 2017), social physique anxiety (Ibáñez et al., 2017), body shame (Razmus & Razmus, 2017), weight discrepancy in women (Jovic et al., 2017; Swami & Ng, 2015; Swami, Barron et al., 2016) and body dysmorphic symptomatology (Hosseini et al., 2018). Associations between BAS-2 scores and body mass index (BMI) are less clear-cut: while most studies have reported significant and negative correlations (Alleva et al., 2016; Ibáñez et al., 2017; Razmus & Razmus, 2017; Swami, García et al., 2017), some studies have reported no significant correlations in men (Jovic et al., 2017; Swami & Ng, 2015; Swami, Barron et al., 2016) and women (Vally et al., 2018), or significant positive correlations in men (Atari, 2016).
As a contribution to the extant literature, the present study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of a Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) translation of the BAS-2 in Malaysian adults. It should be noted that the body appreciation construct has received some attention in the Malaysian context. In an early study, Swami and Chamorro-Premuzic (2008) reported that scores on a Malay translation of the BAS reduced to two dimensions reflecting general body appreciation (8 items) and body image investment (3 items) in a sample of urban Malaysian women. These authors also reported that there were no significant differences in general body appreciation scores between Malaysian Malay and Chinese women (d = 0.11). A later study reported that rural Malaysian participants had significantly higher general body appreciation scores compared to urban participants (ηp2 = .10), although ethnic differences between Malaysian Kadazan-Dusuns, Bajaus, and Muruts did not reach significance (Swami, Campana et al., 2011; Swami, Kannan et al., 2011). While these studies are informative, it is important to highlight that they may now be anachronistic given that the construct of body appreciation was measured using the BAS.
In broad outline, therefore, the present study sought to examine the psychometric properties of a novel translation of the BAS-2 in Malay. This is important for reasons that have been extensively reviewed elsewhere (e.g., Swami, 2006, 2015; Swami & Barron, 2017; Swami, Tovée, & Harris, 2013), including the relative lack of psychometrically valid tools for the assessment of body image in Malay-speaking populations, the unique trajectories of Malaysian lived experiences (e.g., as a nation undergoing a nutritional and lifestyle transition in tandem with rapid industrialisation, political and economic fluctuations, and an increasing rate of obesity; see Swami et al., 2013), and the ethnic heterogeneity of the Malaysian population. In terms of the latter, it should be pointed that out that, while previous studies have assessed ethnic differences in general body appreciation in Malaysian samples (Swami, Campana et al., 2011; Swami & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2008; Swami, Kannan et al., 2011), measurement invariance vis-à-vis body appreciation scores between ethnic groups – a precondition for assessing between-group differences in latent scores (Chen, 2007; Davidov, Meuleman, Cieciuch, Schmidt, & Billiet, 2014) – has not been previously assessed either in Malaysia (or elsewhere).
More specifically, the present study had a number of inter-related aims. First, we sought to examine the factor structure of scores on a Malay translation of the BAS-2. To do so, we followed best-practice recommendations in conducting an EFA followed by CFA (Swami & Barron, 2018; Worthington & Whittaker, 2006), which allowed for an exploration of item behaviour with regards to sample-derived (i.e., through the EFA) and hypothesised (i.e., based on the parent study, the extant translational literature, and the results of the EFA) models for BAS-2 scores. Based on the literature reviewed above, we expected that Malay BAS-2 scores would reduce to single dimension with all 10 items in both EFA and CFA. Further, we examined the extent to which the derived factor structure would be invariant at the configural, metric, and scalar levels between women and men, as well as between the two major ethnic groups in Malaysia (i.e., Malaysian Malays, who make up about 55% of the Malaysian population, and Malaysian Chinese, who make up about 23%; Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2017). Here, we predicted that Malay BAS-2 scores would achieve full measurement invariance across sex and ethnic groups.
In addition, we also examined internal consistency coefficients of BAS-2 scores and examined indices of construct validity. In terms of the latter, we included translated and validated measures of well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and subjective happiness), body image (actual-ideal weight discrepancy in women and drive for muscularity in men), and perceptions of media influence and internalisation of societal ideals of appearance. Evidence of construct validity would be demonstrated through significant positive correlations between BAS-2 scores and scores on measures of well-being, significant negative correlations with scores on measures of negative body image, and significant negative correlations with scores on perceived media influence and internalisation of appearance ideals. We also assessed the convergent validity of BAS-2 scores through associations with self-reported BMI, with the expectation that significant negative correlations would emerge in both women and men. Finally, we examined incremental validity of BAS-2 scores by considering the extent to which these scores predicted subjective happiness above-and-beyond associations with negative body image and media influences.
Section snippets
Participants
The initial participant pool consisted of 863 individuals, but we omitted 82 participants (Malaysian Indian n = 49, other ethnicity n = 33) who did not meet ethnicity inclusion criteria (see below). This left a total sample of 390 women (Malay n = 270, Chinese n = 120) and 391 men (Malay n = 271, Chinese n = 120). All participants were recruited from the Malaysian state of Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The former has the largest the largest economy of all states in
Exploratory factor analysis
For the Malay female subsample (n = 149), Bartlett’s test of sphericity, χ2(45) = 814.84, p < .001, and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy, KMO = .88, indicated that the BAS-2 items had adequate common variance for factor analysis. The results of the EFA revealed two factors with λ > 1.0, though inspection of the scree plot suggested a single primary factor with a steep cut-off to a secondary factor. To determine how many factors to extract, we used parallel analysis (
Discussion
In the present study, we examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of a Malay translation of the BAS-2. In broad outline, our findings showed that scores on the Malay BAS-2 had a one-dimensional factor structure including all 10 items. More specifically, the results of EFA indicated that BAS-2 scores reduced to a single dimension in Malay women and men, and the results of CFA indicated an adequately-fitting one-dimensional model. These findings are consistent with both the
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2022, Body ImageCitation Excerpt :Compared to others of the same age in Sabah, the majority of respondents (63.9 %) indicated that they felt they had the same financial security, 15.5 % felt less secure, and 20.5 % felt more secure. To measure body appreciation, we used the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015a, 2015b; Bahasa Malaysia translation: Swami et al., 2019). The 10-item BAS-2 measures acceptance for one’s body, respect and care for one’s body, and protection of one’s body from unrealistic beauty standards.
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Indicates equal contribution by each author to the manuscript.