Body Esteem Scale (BES): A validation on French adolescent girls and young women

Introduction. The literature of body image suggests that many women and young women suffer from body dissatisfaction and this dissatisfaction is an important risk factor for the development of eating disorders. Objective. The aim of the study was to validate the French female version of the Body Esteem Scale (BES; Mendelson et al., 2001). Method. This self-administered questionnaire assesses body esteem and includes three subscales: "Weight", "Appearance" and "Attribution". The questionnaire was given to a sample of 835 adolescent girls and young adults (mean age = 16.62 +/- 1.50). Results. - Exploratory factorial analysis yielded three factors "Weight", "Appearance" and "Desire to modify and negative affect associated with the general appearance", somewhat similar to those of the original validation study. The goodness-of-fit of the three factors model was satisfactory. Correlations were found between the three subscales of the BES, BMI and general self-esteem. Conclusion. - The French version of the BES shows satisfactory psychometric properties and provides a useful tool for better understanding the psychological aspects of attitudes towards one's body. In France, very few questionnaires are available to measure body attitudes, despite the fact that the body dissatisfaction affects many adolescent girls and represents a risk factor for the development of eating disorders. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.