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Updated: May 15, 2025

Validation of a Psychosocial Intervention on Body Image in Older People: An Experimental Design
Published on: May 31, 2021
Embodiment and Psychological Health in Adolescence: 1. Development and Validation of a Brief 12-item Questionnaireto
Lo Foster1, Lars-Gunnar Lundh2, Daiva Daukantaitė3
1Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, lo.foster@psy.lu.se ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3636-956X.
Background:
Adolescence is characterized by large bodily changes and a heightened body-focus. It is also a sensitive period for the onset of various forms of psychopathology. Previous longitudinal studies have shown that body dissatisfaction is a predictor of disordered eating, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), and depression among adolescents. Body dissatisfaction, however, only represents one aspect of bodily self-experience. Another aspect is embodiment, defined as the anchoring of one's identity in bodily self-experience. Research in this area, however, has been hampered by the lack of a psychometrically sound measure of embodiment that can be administered to adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to develop a brief measure of embodiment suitable for young adolescents.
Methods:
A 12-item Embodiment Scale (ES-12) was developed and underwent confirmatory factor analysis and tests of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, measure invariance, subscale inter-correlations, and construct validity. Incremental validity was analyzed to see if the ES-12 could predict disordered eating, non-suicidal self-injury, depression, and anxiety, above and beyond that of a measure of body dissatisfaction.
Results:
The ES-12 was found to exhibit robust psychometric properties, such as a distinct three-factor structure, strong internal consistency, and good test-retest reliability. It demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity, indicating that its three subscales-Harmonious Body, Disharmonious Body, and Body for Others-are significantly associated with a range of psychological health issues in adolescents. In addition, the ES-12 demonstrated consistent incremental validity by predicting disordered eating, NSSI, depression, and anxiety, beyond that of a measure of body dissatisfaction.
Conclusions:
The results suggest that ES-12 is a useful instrument in research on the experience of embodiment among adolescents.
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