BACKGROUND: Understanding the formation of body image is critical for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders, especially in adolescence, when body image develops significantly. One of the important facets of body image is body appreciation, which consists of positive feelings and attitudes towards the body regardless of its perceived "flaws". To measure body appreciation, Body Appreciation Scale-2 (Tylka and Wood-Barcalow in Body Image 12:53-67, 2015a), a unidimensional 10-item measure, has been developed and routinely used in body image research. The current study examined the validity (i.e., factor structure, gender and age invariance, associations with other constructs) of the Czech version of Body Appreciation Scale-2 for adolescents. METHODS: The study used two large samples of Czech adolescents, aged 13-18 (N1 = 613, M = 15.5, 52% girls; N2 = 1,530, M = 15.4, 50% girls). The data were collected in August 2021 (N1) and November 2020 (N2) through an online survey. For the data analysis, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). RESULTS: Our findings supported the proposed unidimensional factor structure and the gender (i.e., girls, boys) and age (i.e., 13-15, 16-18) scalar invariance of the Czech version of Body Appreciation Scale-2. The data also showed the expected positive correlations with body satisfaction and self-esteem, and negative correlations with media-ideal internalization, appearance schematicity, and depression. Furthermore, we discovered that body appreciation was more strongly connected to media-ideal internalization and depression for girls than boys. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provided robust evidence that supports the validity of the Czech version of Body Appreciation Scale-2 and its usability for the assessment of body appreciation in Czech adolescents. We also proposed future directions for the research on body appreciation based on the explored gender differences.

Understanding the formation of body image—that is, how people view and evaluate their bodies—is crucial for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. This is especially true in adolescence, when body image develops significantly. That being said, the psychological assessment of body image, both in research and practice, requires reliable, high-quality measurement scales. Since its development by Tylka and Wood-Barcalow (2015a), Body Appreciation Scale-2 has been routinely used to assess body appreciation, which includes positive attitudes towards one’s body despite its perceived “flaws”. Our study provides evidence for the quality of the Czech version of Body Appreciation Scale-2 for use with adolescents. We examined the scale’s characteristics on data from two robust samples (613 and 1530 Czech adolescents). Our study showed that the qualities of Czech Body Appreciation Scale-2 are satisfactory, and we recommend the scale for the assessment of body appreciation for adolescents in the Czech context. We also documented that the scale scores can be accurately compared between adolescent girls and boys, and younger (13–15) and older (16–18) adolescents. Additionally, we discovered gender differences in the relationships between body appreciation and depressive moods and the internalization of media ideals, which demands further exploration in future research.

Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Jostova 10 60200 Brno Czech Republic

See more in PubMed

Alleva JM, Martijn C, Veldhuis J, Tylka TL. A dutch translation and validation of the body appreciation Scale-2: an investigation with female university students in the Netherlands. Body Image. 2016;19:44–8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.08.008. PubMed DOI

Andrew R, Tiggemann M, Clark L. The protective role of body appreciation against media-induced body dissatisfaction. Body Image. 2015;15:98–104. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.07.005. PubMed DOI

Avalos L, Tylka TL, Wood-Barcalow N. The body appreciation scale: development and psychometric evaluation. Body Image. 2005;2:285–97. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.06.002. PubMed DOI

Behrend N, Warschburger P. Validation of a german version of the body appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Body Image. 2022;41:216–24. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.020. PubMed DOI

Casale S, Prostamo A, Giovannetti S, Fioravanti G. Translation and validation of an italian version of the body appreciation Scale-2. Body Image. 2021;37:1–5. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.01.005. PubMed DOI

Cash TF, Melnyk SE, Hrabosky JI. The assessment of body image investment: an extensive revision of the appearance schemas inventory. Int J Eat Disord. 2004;35(3):305–16. doi: 10.1002/eat.10264. PubMed DOI

Chen FF. Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Struct Equ Model. 2007;14(3):464–504. doi: 10.1080/10705510701301834. DOI

Daniels EA, Zurbriggen EL, Monique Ward L. Becoming an object: a review of self-objectification in girls. Body Image. 2020;33:278–99. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.02.016. PubMed DOI

de Escoto Ponce MDC, Cervantes-Luna BS, Camacho Ruiz EJ. Cross-validation of the body appreciation scale-2: invariance across sex, body mass index, and age in mexican adolescents. Eat Weight Disorders: EWD. 2021;26(4):1187–94. doi: 10.1007/s40519-020-01022-2. PubMed DOI

Delinsky SS. Body image and anorexia nervosa. In: Cash TF, Smolak L, editors. Body image: a handbook of science, practice and prevention. New York: The Guilgord Press; 2011. pp. 279–87.

DiStefano C, Motl RW. Personality correlates of method effects due to negatively worded items on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Pers Indiv Differ. 2009;46(3):309–13. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.10.020. DOI

Douglas SP, Craig CS. Collaborative and iterative translation: an alternative approach to back translation. J Int Mark. 2007;15(1):30–43. doi: 10.1509/jimk.15.1.030. DOI

Frisén A, Holmqvist K. What characterizes early adolescents with a positive body image? A qualitative investigation of swedish girls and boys. Body Image. 2010;7:205–12. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2010.04.001. PubMed DOI

Garner DM. Eating disorder Inventory-3. Lutz: Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources; 2004.

Góngora VC, Licea C, Mebarak Chams V, Thornborrow T. Assessing the measurement invariance of a latin-american spanish translation of the body appreciation Scale-2 in Mexican, Argentinean, and colombian adolescents. Body Image. 2020;32:180–9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.01.004. PubMed DOI

Hargreaves D, Tiggemann M. The effect of television commercials on mood and body dissatisfaction: the role of appearance-schema activation. J Soc Clin Psychol. 2002;21(3):287–308. doi: 10.1521/jscp.21.3.287.22532. DOI

He J, Sun S, Zickgraf HF, Lin Z, Fan X. Meta-analysis of gender differences in body appreciation. Body Image. 2020;33:90–100. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.02.011. PubMed DOI

Holsen I, Carlson D, Skogbrott M. Body image satisfaction among norwegian adolescents and young adults: a longitudinal study of the influence of interpersonal relationships and BMI. Body Image. 2012;9(2):201–8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.01.006. PubMed DOI

Homan KJ, Tylka TL. Development and exploration of the gratitude model of body appreciation in women. Body Image. 2018;25:14–22. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.01.008. PubMed DOI

Hu L-T, Bentler PM. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Model. 1999;6(1):1–55. doi: 10.1080/10705519909540118. DOI

Huang C, Dong N. Factor structures of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: a meta-analysis of pattern matrices. Eur J Psychol Assess. 2012;28(2):132–8. doi: 10.1027/1015-5759/a000101. DOI

Inchley J, Currie D, Budisavljevic S, Torsheim T, Jåstad A, Cosma A et al. (2020). Spotlight on adolescent health and well-being. Findings from the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in Europe and Canada. International report. Volume 2. Key data. WHO Regional Office for Europe

Jorgensen TD, Pornprasertmanit S, Schoemann AM, Rosseel Y. (2021). semTools: Useful tools for structural equation modeling. R package version 0.5-5 Retrieved from https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=semTools.

Junqueira ACP, Laus MF, Almeida S, Costa S, Braga, Todd TM, Swami V. Translation and validation of a brazilian portuguese version of the body appreciation Scale-2 in brazilian adults. Body Image. 2019;31:160–70. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.10.002. PubMed DOI

Kandel DB, Davies M. Epidemiology of depressive mood in adolescents: an empirical study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982;39(10):1205–12. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1982.04290100065011. PubMed DOI

Keery H, Shroff H, Thompson JK, Wertheim E, Smolak L. The sociocultural internalization of appearance questionnaire–adolescents (SIAQ-A): psychometric analysis and normative data for three countries. Eat Weight Disorders. 2004;9:56–61. doi: 10.1007/BF03325046. PubMed DOI

Kenny DA, Kaniskan B, McCoach DB. The performance of RMSEA in models with small degrees of freedom. Sociol Methods Res. 2015;44(3):486–507. doi: 10.1177/0049124114543236. DOI

Kertechain S, Swami V. An examination of the factor structure and sex invariance of a french translation of the body appreciation Scale-2 in university students. Body Image. 2017;21:26–9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.02.005. PubMed DOI

Korkmaz S, Goksuluk D, Zararsiz G. MVN: an R package for assessing multivariate normality. R J. 2014;6(2):151–62. doi: 10.32614/RJ-2014-031. DOI

Kvardova N, Machackova H, Smahel D. A moderated mediation model for body-positive online content and body image among adolescents. Body Image. 2022;42:370–4. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.07.002. PubMed DOI

Li C-H. Confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data: comparing robust maximum likelihood and diagonally weighted least squares. Behav Res Methods. 2016;48(3):936–49. doi: 10.3758/s13428-015-0619-7. PubMed DOI

Lacko D, Čeněk J, Točík J, Avsec A, Đorđević V, Genc A, Haka F, Šakotić-Kurbalija J, Mohorić T, Neziri I, Subotić S. The necessity of testing measurement invariance in cross-cultural research: potential bias in cross-cultural comparisons with Individualism– Collectivism Self-Report Scales. Cross-Cultural Res. 2022 doi: 10.1177/10693971211068971. DOI

Lee M (2023) Validation and measurement invariance of a Korean version of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 in cisgender sexual minorities and heterosexual adults. Body Image 47:101625. 10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101625 PubMed

Lemoine JE, Konradsen H, Jensen AL, Roland-Lévy C, Ny P, Khalaf A, Torres S. Factor structure and psychometric properties of the body appreciation Scale-2 among adolescents and young adults in danish, portuguese, and swedish. Body Image. 2018;26:1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.04.004. PubMed DOI

Linardon J, McClure Z, Tylka TL, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M. Body appreciation and its psychological correlates: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Body Image. 2022;42:287–96. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.07.003. PubMed DOI

Ma J, Wang K, Tylka TL. Psychometric properties of a Mandarin Chinese version of the body appreciation Scale-2 with residents from chinese mainland. Body Image. 2022;42:110–9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.05.007. PubMed DOI

Maes C, Trekels J, Tylka TL, Vandenbosch L. The positive body image among adolescents scale (PBIAS): conceptualization, development, and psychometric evaluation among adolescents from Belgium. Body Image. 2021;38:270–88. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.05.004. PubMed DOI

Markey CN. Invited commentary: why body image is important to adolescent development. J Youth Adolesc. 2010;39(12):1387–91. doi: 10.1007/s10964-010-9510-0. PubMed DOI

Orbach I, Mikulincer M. The body investment scale: construction and validation of a body experience scale. Psychol Assess. 1998;10(4):415. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.10.4.415. DOI

Paquette M-M, Dion J, Bőthe B, Bergeron S. Validation of the body appreciation Scale-2 in cisgender, heterosexual and sexual and gender minority adolescents and sexuality-related correlates. Body Image. 2022;43:193–204. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.09.001. PubMed DOI

R Core Team. R: a language and environment for statistica lcomputing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2021. https://www.R-project.org/.

Razmus M, Razmus W. Evaluating the psychometric properties of the polish version of the body appreciation Scale-2. Body Image. 2017;23:45–9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.07.004. PubMed DOI

Ren Y, Barnhart WR, Cui T, Song J, Tang C, Cui S, He J. Exploring the longitudinal association between body dissatisfaction and body appreciation in chinese adolescents: a four-wave, random intercept cross-lagged panel model. Body Image. 2023;46:32–40. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.04.011. PubMed DOI

Rhemtulla M, Brosseau-Liard PÉ, Savalei V. When can categorical variables be treated as continuous? A comparison of robust continuous and categorical SEM estimation methods under suboptimal conditions. Psychol Methods. 2012;17(3):354–73. doi: 10.1037/a0029315. PubMed DOI

Roberts SR, Maheux AJ, Hunt RA, Ladd BA, Choukas-Bradley S. Incorporating social media and muscular ideal internalization into the tripartite influence model of body image: towards a modern understanding of adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction. Body Image. 2022;41:239–47. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.03.002. PubMed DOI

Rodgers RF, Paxton SJ. A biopsychosocial model of body image concerns and disordered eating in early adolescent girls. J Youth Adolesc. 2014;43(5):814–23. doi: 10.1007/s10964-013-0013-7. PubMed DOI

Rosenberg M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2015.

Rosseel Y. lavaan: an R package for structural equation modeling. J Stat Softw. 2012;48(2):1–36. doi: 10.18637/jss.v048.i02. DOI

Sinclair SJ, Blais MA, Gansler DA, Sandberg E, Bistis K, LoCicero A. Psychometric properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: overall and across demographic groups living within the United States. Eval Health Prof. 2010;33(1):56–80. doi: 10.1177/0163278709356187. PubMed DOI

Šmídová S, Švancara J, Andrýsková L, Šimůnek J. Adolescent body image: results of Czech ELSPAC study. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2018;26(1):60–4. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a4930. PubMed DOI

Sörbom D. A general method for studying differences in factor means and factor structure between groups. Br J Math Stat Psychol. 1974;27:229–39. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1974.tb00543.x. DOI

Swami V, Ng S-K. Factor structure and psychometric properties of the body appreciation Scale-2 in university students in Hong Kong. Body Image. 2015;15:68–71. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.06.004. PubMed DOI

Swami V, García AA, Barron D. Factor structure and psychometric properties of a spanish translation of the body appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Body Image. 2017;22:13–7. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.05.002. PubMed DOI

Swami V, Tudorel O, Goian C, Barron D, Vintila M. Factor structure and psychometric properties of a romanian translation of the body appreciation Scale-2. Body Image. 2017;23:61–8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.08.001. PubMed DOI

Swami V, Mohd. Khatib NA, Toh E, Zahari HS, Todd J, Barron D. Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Bahasa Malaysia (malay) translation of the body appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) Body Image. 2019;28:66–75. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2018.12.006. PubMed DOI

Thompson JK, Heinberg LJ, Altabe M, Tantleff-Dunn S. Exacting beauty: theory, assessment, and treatment of body image disturbance. Washington: American Psychological Association; 1999.

Tiggemann M, McCourt A. Body appreciation in adult women: Relationships with age and body satisfaction. Body Image. 2013;10(4):624–7. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.07.003. PubMed DOI

Tylka TL. Evidence for the body appreciation scale’s measurement equivalence/invariance between U.S. College women and men. Body Image. 2013;10(3):415–8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.02.006. PubMed DOI

Tylka TL. Body appreciation. In: Tylka TL, Piran N, editors. Handbook of positive body image and embodiment: constructs, protective factors, and interventions. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2019. pp. 22–32.

Tylka TL, Wood-Barcalow NL. The body appreciation Scale-2: item refinement and psychometric evaluation. Body Image. 2015;12:53–67. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.09.006. PubMed DOI

Tylka TL, Wood-Barcalow NL. What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. Body Image. 2015;14:118–29. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001. PubMed DOI

Webb JB, Butler-Ajibade P, Robinson SA. Considering an affect regulation framework for examining the association between body dissatisfaction and positive body image in Black older adolescent females: does body mass index matter? Body Image. 2014;11(4):426–37. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.07.002. PubMed DOI PMC

Webb JB, Wood-Barcalow NL, Tylka TL. Assessing positive body image: contemporary approaches and future directions. Body Image. 2015;14:130–45. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.03.010. PubMed DOI

Wildy H, Clarke S. Using cognitive interviews to pilot an international survey of principal preparation: a western australian perspective. Educational Assess Evaluation Account. 2009;21(2):105–17. doi: 10.1007/s11092-009-9073-3. DOI

Winter VR, Gillen MM, Cahill L, Jones A, Ward M. Body appreciation, anxiety, and depression among a racially diverse sample of women. J Health Psychol. 2019;24(11):1517–25. doi: 10.1177/1359105317728575. PubMed DOI

Wood-Barcalow NL, Tylka TL, Augustus-Horvath CL. But I like my body’: positive body image characteristics and a holistic model for young-adult women. Body Image. 2010;7(2):106–16. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2010.01.001. PubMed DOI