Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults

TLDR

Body esteem (BE) refers to self‑evaluations of one’s body or appearance. The study aims to develop a BE questionnaire for adolescents and adults. The questionnaire comprises three subscales—BE‑Appearance, BE‑Weight, and BE‑Attribution—to assess general appearance feelings, weight satisfaction, and others’ evaluations of one’s body. The subscales demonstrate high internal consistency and 3‑month test‑retest reliability; females scored lower on BE‑Weight and BE‑Appearance, with BE‑Weight uniquely linked to weight dissatisfaction—especially in heavy females—and BE‑Appearance consistently predicting self‑esteem, while BE‑Weight and BE‑Appearance correlated more with Neeman and Harter’s Appearance subscale and BE‑Attribution with social self‑esteem subscales.

Abstract

Abstract Body esteem (BE) refers to self-evaluations of one's body or appearance. This article outlines a BE questionnaire for adolescents and adults that has 3 subscales: BE-Appearance (general feelings about appearance), BE-Weight (weight satisfaction), and BE-Attribution (evaluations attributed to others about one's body and appearance). The subscales have high internal consistency and 3-month test-retest reliability. Females scored lower than males on BE-Weight and BE-Appearance. BE-Weight was the only subscale uniquely related to weight, especially in females, with heavy individuals tending to be dissatisfied with their weight. BE-Appearance was the only subscale that consistently predicted self-esteem. BE-Appearance and BE-Weight covaried more with Neeman and Harter's (1986) Appearance subscale than with other self-esteem subscales; BE-Attribution covaried more with social self-esteem subscales than did BE-Appearance and BE-Weight.