Validation of a Latin-American Spanish version of the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA-LA) in Colombian and Nicaraguan adults.

BACKGROUND: Body dissatisfaction (BD) is a growing concern in Latin America; reliable and culturally appropriate scales are necessary to support body image research in Spanish speaking Latin American countries. We sought to validate a Latin-American Spanish version of the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA; Mendelson et al. 2001). METHODS: The BESAA was translated, culturally adapted, and validated in a sample of adults in Colombia (N = 525, 65% women, Mage 24.4, SD = 9.28). We assessed factor structure (using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and exploratory structural equation model (ESEM)), internal reliability (using Cronbach's alpha and omega), validity (using the Body Appreciation Scale BAS and Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire SATAQ), test-retest stability in a small subsample (N = 84, using Intraclass correlations ICC) and measurement invariance across gender. To evaluate the generalizability of the scale, we assessed reliability, validity, and factor structure in a second sample from rural Nicaragua (N = 102, 73% women, Mage 22.2, SD = 4.72), and assessed measurement invariance across Nicaraguan and Colombian participants. RESULTS: The scale showed good internal reliability and validity in both samples, and there was evidence of adequate test-retest stability in the Colombian sample. EFA showed a three-factor structure with subscales we labelled 'appearance-positive', 'appearance-negative' and 'weight', that was confirmed using CFA and ESEM in the Colombian sample. Measurement invariance was confirmed across the Colombian and Nicaraguan samples, and across gender within the Colombian sample. CONCLUSION: The Latin-American Spanish version of the BESAA (BESAA-LA) appears to be a psychometrically sound measure with good reliability, validity and invariance across gender and countries. These results support the use of this scale to measure body satisfaction/dissatisfaction in Latin American adult populations.

Television consumption drives perceptions of female body attractiveness in a population undergoing technological transition.

Perceptions of physical attractiveness vary across cultural groups, particularly for female body size and shape. It has been hypothesized that visual media propagates Western "thin ideals." However, because cross-cultural studies typically consider groups highly differentiated on a number of factors, identifying the causal factors has thus far been impossible. In the present research, we conducted "naturalistic" and controlled experiments to test the influence of media access on female body ideals in a remote region of Nicaragua by sampling from villages with and without regular TV access. We found that greater TV consumption remained a significant predictor of preferences for slimmer, curvier female figures after controlling for a range of other factors in an ethnically balanced sample of 299 individuals (150 female, aged 15-79) across 7 villages. Within-individual analyses in 1 village over 3 years also showed an association between increased TV consumption and preferences for slimmer figures among some participants. Finally, an experimental study in 2 low-media locations demonstrates that exposure to media images of fashion models can directly impact participants' body size ideals. We provide the first converging cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental evidence from field-based research, that media exposure can drive changes in perceptions of female attractiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media.

Television consumption influences perceptions of attractive female body size. However, cross-cultural research examining media influence on body ideals is typically confounded by differences in the availability of reliable and diverse foodstuffs. 112 participants were recruited from 3 Nicaraguan villages that differed in television consumption and nutritional status, such that the contribution of both factors could be revealed. Participants completed a female figure preference task, reported their television consumption, and responded to several measures assessing nutritional status. Communities with higher television consumption and/or higher nutritional status preferred thinner female bodies than communities with lower television consumption and/or lower nutritional status. Bayesian mixed models estimated the plausible range of effects for television consumption, nutritional status, and other relevant variables on individual preferences. The model explained all meaningful differences between our low-nutrition villages, and television consumption, after sex, was the most likely of these predictors to contribute to variation in preferences (probability mass >95% when modelling only variables with zero-order associations with preferences, but only 90% when modelling all possible predictors). In contrast, we found no likely link with nutritional status. We thus found evidence that where media access and nutritional status are confounded, media is the more likely predictor of body ideals.

Television exposure predicts body size ideals in rural Nicaragua.

Internalization of a thin ideal has been posited as a key risk factor in the development of pathological eating attitudes. Cross-culturally, studies have found a preference for heavier bodies in populations with reduced access to visual media compared to Western populations. As yet, however, there has been little attempt to control for confounding variables in order to isolate the effects of media exposure from other cultural and ecological factors. Here, we examined preferences for female body size in relation to television consumption in Nicaraguan men and women, while controlling for the potential confounding effects of other aspects of Westernization and hunger. We included an urban sample, a sample from a village with established television access, and a sample from a nearby village with very limited television access. The highest BMI preferences were found in the village with least media access, while the lowest BMI preferences were found in the urban sample. Data from the rural sample with established television access were intermediate between the two. Amongst rural women in particular, greater television consumption was a stronger predictor of body weight preferences than acculturation, education, hunger, or income. We also found some evidence for television consumption increasing the likelihood of women seeking to lose weight, possibly via body shape preferences. Overall, these results strongly implicate television access in establishing risk factors for body image disturbances in populations newly gaining access to Western media.