Development of Body Dissatisfaction Scale for University Students

The construct of body image has been considered to be important for young individuals. The present research was conducted to explore the construct of body dissatisfaction in university students of Lahore. In the first phase of the study, the construct of body dissatisfaction was explored through semi-structured interview questionnaires from 20 university students which yielded a list of 31 items. These items were then given to experts for content validity. Afterwards, the resultant scale of 26 items was administered on 529 university students including men and women. The factor analyses revealed that the construct of body dissatisfaction was construed quite differently by men and women, hence, separate factor analyses for both genders were carried out. It showed 4 factors (i.e., body shape, muscularity, facial features, and hair) for boys and 3 factors (i.e., bodyweight, skeletal structure, and facial features) for women. Concurrent Validity was established with the help of two measures of the Body Areas Satisfaction Scale of the Multidimensional Body Self-Relation Questionnaire- Appearance Scale (Brown, Cash, and Mikula, 1990) and the Figure Rating Scale (Stunkard, Sorenson, and Schulsinger, 1983). Test-retest reliability and Cronbach alpha values indicated that scale was highly reliable measure to study body dissatisfaction. The factor structure of the Body Dissatisfaction Scale was explained in the light of cultural variations.