Journal of Personality Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults Body-Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults

Abstract

Body esteem (BE) refers to self-evaluations of one’s body or appearance. This article outlines a BE questionnaire for adolescents and adults that has 3 subscales: BE–Ap- pearance (general feelings about appearance), BE–Weight (weight satisfaction), and BE–Attribution (evaluations attributed to others about one’s body and appearance). The subscales have high internal consistency and 3-month test–retest reliability. Fe- males scored lower than males on BE–Weight and BE–Appearance. BE–Weight was the only subscale uniquely related to weight, especially in females, with heavy indi- viduals tending to be dissatisfied with their weight. BE–Appearance was the only subscale that consistently predicted self-esteem. BE–Appearance and BE–Weight covaried more with Neeman and Harter’s (1986) Appearance subscale than with other self-esteem subscales; BE–Attribution covaried more with social self-esteem subscales than did BE–Appearance and BE–Weight.