The physical self-concept of university students in Ecuador

The present research aims to address a process of psychometric adaptation of the Physical Self-Concept Questionnaire (CAF) of Goni et al. (2006) in a university population to test its performance in Ecuador (n =2048, m = 21.64; dt = 6.71). The analysis was based on the factor structure of the questionnaire; therefore, the variables considered are: sport ability, physical condition, physical attractiveness, strength, general physical self-concept and general self-concept. Regarding the factorial structure of the CAF, the results show that for the proposed exploratory structural equation model, optimal adjustment values were obtained. With respect to factorial invariance, the instrument measures the constructs in the same way in men and women, and the associated values of metric equivalence for healthy habits are met. The results from the analysis of the latent mean differences considering the Body Mass Index allow us to conclude that medium weight subjects have significantly higher mean scores than underweight subjects in the Physical Condition factor. With respect to the overweight subjects, they have a significantly lower mean value with respect to the group of subjects with normal weight in the Physical Attractiveness factor, and significantly higher in the Strength factor.