The Body Influence Assessment Inventory (BIAI): Development and initial validation

Abstract

This manuscript describes the development and preliminary psychometric properties of a 28-item self-report instrument, the Body Influence Assessment Inventory (BIAI). The BIAI taps four dimensions of bodily experiences in the eating disorders area that are linked with suicide-related behaviors. Following the four phases of instrument development, four studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the BIAI. In Study 1 (n = 510 nonclinical participants), exploratory factor analysis identified four factors with item-factor compositions ranging from .30 to .88. In Study 2 (n = 490 nonclinical participants), the four-factor oblique solution provided the best fit to the sample data: Comparative fit index of .95, Tucker-Lewis Index of .93, and root-mean-square error of approximation value of .05. In Study 3 (psychiatric inpatients), estimates of test-retest reliability across a four-week interval (n = 46) ranged from .80 to .89, and estimates of criterion-related validity were strong. In Study 4, Cronbach alpha estimates ranged from .81 to .90 for the BIAI scales. Results provided additional evidence of known-groups and concurrent validity estimates for the BIAI scales. The results suggest that the BIAI has good preliminary psychometric properties.