The Body Appreciation Scale-2: Psychometric evaluation of the Puerto Rican Spanish version among women aged ≥ 50 years who are breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Purspose

Self-perceived body image may impact women’s well-being and levels of depressive symptomatology after cancer-related treatment. The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a 10-item, unidimensional tool used to assess body appreciation, a facet of body image. A culturally relevant version of the BAS-2 was needed for the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico. A cross-cultural adaptation of the BAS-2 for Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico was conducted and tested its psychometric properties, using a methodological design. It was hypothesized that the BAS-2 adapted for Puerto Rican Spanish would have an internal consistency with a Cronbach α value greater than 0.70 and a unidimensional structure; and that body appreciation would be positively and significantly correlated to mental health and would be negatively and significantly correlated to depression and body mass index.

Methods

One hundred-nine participants were recruited with a diagnosis of breast cancer (stages 0 to III) who completed adjuvant curative therapy at least two months to five years prior to recruitment.

Results

Participants had an average age of 61.5 years (SD = 7.1), and 64.2% had a bachelor’s degree or higher educational level. The internal consistency of the BAS-2 adapted for the Puerto Rican Spanish was Cronbach α = 0.92. Exploratory factor analysis indicated one-dimensionality of the test. Body appreciation was negatively correlated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology and with a higher body mass index, and positively correlated with higher levels of mental health.

Conclusion

The BAS-2 adapted for the Spanish of Puerto Rico is a psychometrically sound instrument to assess body image.

Keywords:

• Body image
• breast cancer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by grants 3SC3GM116684 and U54GM133807 from the National Institute of General Medicine Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.