FACTOR-ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE MEASURES OF BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCE - ARE WE ALL MEASURING THE SAME CONSTRUCT

Two studies were conducted to determine the overlap among multiple mea sures of subjective body image disturbance. Study 1 was conducted on 2 19 adolescent females (ages 14-18 years) who completed seven widely us ed indices of self-reported body image disturbance. Study 2 involved 1 62 college females (ages 17-35 years) and six measures of disturbance, five of which were identical with those instruments used in Study 1. Factor analyses indicated the existence of two factors in the adolesce nt sample, however, one factor was quite strong and accounted for most of the variance. Analyses on the adult subjects revealed the existenc e of a single body image factor. It was concluded that the measures un der investigation largely reflect an underlying single factor of body image, despite their common usage in the literature as indicators of m ultiple aspects of body image disturbance. (C) 1994 by John Wiley & So ns, Inc.