An Evaluation of Body Image Assessments in Hispanic College Women: The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire and the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised.

The authors evaluated the utility of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ; Brown, Cash, & Mikulka, 1990) and the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R; Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004) by administering the instruments to Hispanic female college students. Results indicated that the means of the MBSRQ and the ASI-R differed significantly from previously published norms but evidenced adequate internal consistency reliability. However, further research is needed to examine these constructs within this population. ********** In the past few decades, increasing empirical attention has focused on factors related to women's perceptions of their own body weight and appearance. Reports of negative body image in women have been empirically linked with mental health concerns for women, including a higher prevalence of depression (e.g., Stice & Bearman, 2001; Wiederman & Pryor, 2000), intensified anxiety levels (e.g., Monro & Huon, 2005), diminished self-esteem (e.g., Davison & McCabe, 2006), and a significantly increased risk of developing an eating disorder (e.g., Johnson & Wardle, 2005; Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). Furthermore, women with a negative body image are more likely to seek elective cosmetic surgery (e.g., Askegaard, Gertsen, & Langer, 2002) and use products claiming to guarantee weight loss (e.g., Cogan & Ernsberger, 1999). Increased empirical attention has recently been directed to examinations of differences in the prevalence and course of negative body image and disordered eating patterns across ethnic and racial groups. However, researchers who have examined body image in Hispanic women have been forced to use measures developed with predominantly Anglo samples without empirical evidence of the validity of the measures in a Hispanic population. To our knowledge, only two studies (e.g., Rutt & Coleman, 2001; Rutt, Garcia, & Coleman, 2002) have specifically examined the psychometric properties of commonly used measures of body image exclusively with a Hispanic sample. To address this gap in the literature, we administered the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ; Brown, Cash, & Mikulka, 1990) and the Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R; Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004), instruments that have not been evaluated in a Hispanic sample to date, to 85 Hispanic female college students to provide a preliminary evaluation of their psychometric properties in this population. Disturbed Eating Behaviors and Negative Body Image Among College Women Research has repeatedly identified college women to be at increased risk of negative body image and disturbed eating behaviors (e.g., Cashel, Cunningham, Landeros, Cokley, & Muhammed, 2003; Levitt, 2004; Schwitzer, Rodriguez, Thomas, & Salimi, 2001). For example, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA, 2006) reported, based on surveys of colleges around the United States, that about "20% of college student participants believe that they have suffered from an eating disorder during their college career" (p. 1). The 1,002 respondents included both males (36.5%) and females (63.5%) and ranged from undergraduate freshman to graduate students. However, the sample was minimally diverse with a reported ethnic makeup of 78.9% Anglo American, 7.6% African American, 8.2% Asian American, and 7.2% Hispanic American. The instruments included questions for the student participants about their general knowledge of eating disorders and asked them to estimate how many of their peers are currently dealing with an eating disorder and identify the main causes and treatment options for those struggling with an eating disorder, to measure awareness and prevalence rates on college campuses. The participants were generally knowledgeable of eating disorders, and over half (55.3%) stated that they knew at least one person with an eating disorder. …