Body image and nonsuicidal self‐injury: Validation of the Body Investment Scale in participants with eating disorders

Abstract

The Body Investment Scale (BIS) assesses body image feelings, body care, protection of the body, and comfort in touch, in order to identify and distinguish participants with self-harming and self-destructive tendencies. However, the psychometric properties of the BIS were not analysed in participants diagnosed with eating disorders. The main objective of the present study is to confirm the factor structure of the Spanish version of the BIS and analyse its psychometric properties in a sample composed of women diagnosed with eating disorders. Participants were 250 Spanish women between 12 and 60 years old (M = 26.05, SD = 11.97) diagnosed with eating disorders. A confirmatory factor analysis showed a poor fit of the original BIS. The final model showed an acceptable 4-factor structure (Body Feelings, α = .88; Body Touch, α = .82; Body Protection, α = .77; Body Care, α = .68), with a good fit to the data (SBχ = 393.21, CFI = .906, IFI = .908, RMSEA = .049). The relationships between the BIS and both the Purpose-In-Life Test-10 Items and Beck Hopelessness Scale were analysed, as well as differences in the BIS score according to nonsuicidal self-injuries and suicidal ideation in the past year. The BIS is an appropriate instrument to assess the body investment dimension of body image in women with eating disorders.

The Portuguese version of the body investment scale: psychometric properties and relationships with disordered eating and emotion dysregulation

“…However, a respecified model, including covariances between four pairs of item residuals due to the similar meaning of the items in each pair, showed an improved fit. Our results are consistent with the validation study of the Spanish version of the BIS among patients with EDs [25], in which measurement errors for items 3 ("It makes me feel good to do something dangerous") and 7 ("I am not afraid to engage in dangerous activities") were correlated to improve the goodness of fit. In contrast to the nonclinical sample, the CFA results also suggest that the four-factor solution of the BIS adequately describes aspects of the emotional investment in the body among individuals with EDs.…”

“…Patients with and without suicidal ideation in the past year also differed on the same three BIS factors. Non-significant differences between groups were found regarding the body care factor [25].…”

“…As far as we know, the BIS [12] has not been used in Portuguese research, and only four studies [12,[24][25][26] have examined the psychometric properties of this scale. In the original validation study [12], with a mixed sample of Israeli suicidal young people and community volunteers, an exploratory factor analysis revealed that the four factors explained 55% of the variance of body investment.…”

“…However, the body protection factor revealed low internal consistency (α = .37) and was not correlated with the remaining three factors [24]. Finally, the Spanish version of the BIS was evaluated with 250 women diagnosed with an ED [25]. A CFA for the original BIS [12] showed a poor fit, but a respecified model showed an acceptable fit after correlating the measurement errors for items 3 ("It makes me feel good to do something dangerous") and 7 ("I am not afraid to engage in dangerous activities") and including item 12 ("I enjoy taking a bath") into the body image feelings and attitudes factor.…”

Body Image of Highly Trained Female Athletes Engaged in Different Types of Sport

“…The original scale was translated into the national language (Polish) and then translated back into English for confirmation by the Health Behavior in School-aged Children project's International Coordinating Centre [ 27 , 28 ]. This scale was used in research on body image in adolescents and adults [ 27 , 29 , 30 ]. In our study, the scale's internal consistency, established using Cronbach's alpha test, was 0.90.…”