Assessing Women’s Negative Commentary on Their Own Bodies

A Psychometric Investigation of the Negative Body Talk Scale

Bibliographic Data

ID12005397
AuthorsRenee Engeln (0000-0001-6484-8965, Northwestern University, corresponding author), Renee Engeln-Maddox (Northwestern University), Rachel H Salk (0000-0001-7366-843X, University of Wisconsin–Madison), Steven A Miller (0000-0002-3697-3037, Department of Clinical Psychology, Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Chicago, IL, USA)
Year2012
Volume36
Issue2
Pages162-178
Publication date2012-04-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychology of Women Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-6843 • E-ISSN: 1471-6402
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0361684312441593
OpenAlexW2009995660
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited54

Our article details the development of the self-report Negative Body Talk (NBT) scale and five studies (all conducted with samples of U.S. undergraduate women) supporting the psychometric soundness of scores on this measure. The NBT scale measures women’s tendency to engage in negatively valenced commentary about the weight and shape of their own bodies (including upward comparisons that comprise implicit negative commentary) when speaking with others. Two subscales were identified using a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The body concerns subscale assesses women’s tendency to make comments expressing worries over the size/shape of their bodies. The body comparison subscale assesses women’s tendency to vocalize unfavorable comparisons of their body with the bodies of other women. Scores on the NBT scale demonstrated strong internal consistency and moderate test–retest reliability with these samples of U.S. college women. Evidence of convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity is presented. The NBT scale may be useful in the growing body of research examining how the social norm of women expressing body dissatisfaction in conversation with others both reflects and fuels body image disturbance in women

Confirmatory factor analysis · Convergent validity · Conversation · Cronbach's alpha · Developmental psychology · Discriminant validity · Exploratory factor analysis · Internal consistency · Optimism · Psychometrics · Scale (ratio · Structural equation modeling · Clinical Psychology · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Eating Disorders and Behaviors · Humor Studies and Applications · Psychology · Social Psychology

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