Tennis star Andre Agassi has been quoted as saying,"lmage is everything." This may seem like an exaggeration, but body image is a powerful factor in how we feel about ourselves.To suffer from a body image disturbance often

The SATAQ-3 measures multiple aspects of a societal influence and should prove useful for basic risk factor work as well as for gauging the efficacy of prevention and treatment programs.

Body-image disturbance and eating disorders are a significant physical and mental health problem in Western countries. We describe emerging work on one newly identified variable that appears to be a potent risk factor for the development of these problems internalization of societal standards of attractiveness. Work conducted independently in our labs over the past decade has included scale development, correlational studies, prospective risk-factor studies, randomized experiments, and randomized prevention trials. Findings collectively suggest that internalization is a causal risk factor for body-image and eating disturbances, and that it appears to operate in conjunction with other established risk factors for these outcomes, including dieting and negative affect. Future research is needed to examine the specific familial, peer, and media influences that promote internalization and to replicate and extend our prospective and experimental studies.

The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) was developed to assess women's recognition and acceptance of societally sanctioned standards of appearance. In Study 1, factor analyses revealed two clearcut factors: awareness/acknowledgment of a societal emphasis on appearance and an internalization/acceptance of these standards. These findings were cross‐validated in Study 2, resulting in a six‐item Awareness subscale (alpha = .71) and an eight‐item Internalization subscale (alpha = .88). Study 3 obtained good convergence between both scales and multiple indices of body image and eating disturbance. Regression analyses indicated that both factors accounted for unique variance associated with body image and eating dysfunction, however, internalization of standards was a stronger predictor of disturbance. The SATAQ should prove useful for researchers and clinicians interested in body image and eating disorders. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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