Development of new psychometric instruments to measure appearance distress during adolescence: The adolescent appearance distress scales

摘要

Measures of adolescent appearance distress have focused on weight and body shape, excluding other aspects of appearance. The absence of a psychometrically sound, general measure of appearance distress has limited evaluation of interventions and curtailed investigation of psychological processes in adolescent appearance adjustment. This paper describes the development of scales assessing adolescent appearance distress to address this dearth of appropriate measures, validated through cross-sectional design involving 617 adolescents. Two scales were developed, comprising 13 items for younger adolescents and 17 items for older adolescents. Two similar factors were generated for each scale, “fear of negative appearance evaluation” and “salience and investment in appearance.” A third factor was identified for older adolescents, “social appearance comparison.” Sound psychometric properties were demonstrated