Establishing Cross-Cultural Measurement Equivalence of a Popular Body Attitudes Questionnaire Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The purpose of this project was to investigate the cross-cultural measurement equivalence of a popular body image instrument, the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ), in American and Jordanian populations. Measurement equivalence seeks to establish that the psychometric properties (reliability, validity, factor structure, etc.) of an assessment are similar (invariant) across different populations, and is tested by imposing successively more restrictive comparative measurement models. Lack of measurement equivalence suggests varying degrees of cultural bias that can affect the interpretation of the responses. Using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis, the SATAQ demonstrated configural invariance failed stricter cross-cultural tests. These results suggest that although the SATAQ is reliable in both populations, there is substantial cultural bias present that can influence the validity of the scores. Based on these results, researchers can be confident in using SATAQ for within-culture research. However, direct, cross-cultural comparisons between Americans and Jordanians are not advised