Mp. Mccabe et La. Ricciardelli, The structure of the perceived sociocultural influences on body image and body change questionnaire, INT J BEH M, 8(1), 2001, pp. 19-41
This article is concerned with the development and evaluation of the Percei
ved Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire. T
he scale was designed to assess the perceived nature of feedback received f
rom mother, father, best male friend, and best female friend to gain weight
, lose weight, and increase muscle tone. The perceived feedback from the me
dia on each of these areas also was assessed. Exploratory factor analysis w
as conducted with 240 adolescent boys (mean age = 13.83 years) and 204 adol
escent girls (mean age = 13.70 years). A 3-factor structure was found for t
he 4 scales that related to perceived feedback from mother, father, best ma
le friend, and best female Friend. Feedback on muscle tone loaded with both
weight loss and weight gain. The three factors related to (a) general feed
back; (b) encourage, tease, and modeling to gain weight and increase muscle
tone, and (c) encourage, tease, and modeling to lose weight and increase m
uscle tone. The factor structure and the items that made up these factors w
ere the same for both boys and girls for each of the 4 scales. The Perceive
d Media Influences Scale formed 3 factors for girls. These factors related
to gaining weight, losing weight, and increasing muscle tone. For boys, the
same 9 items formed a single factor. The same items were retained for boys
and girls. A confirmatory factor analysis with 822 adolescents (382 boys,
mean age = 14.02 years; 440 girls, mean age = 13.82 years) confirmed the pr
eviously described factor structure. These results demonstrate that the Per
ceived Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire
is able to assess body image and body change strategies that are relevant
for both boys and girls.