The 14-item Body Talk Scale (BTS; Lin et al., 2021) was designed to measure both positive body talk and negative body talk in adult women and men. Body talk is defined as the ways in which people talk about their bodies. Positive body talk refers to self-accepting and self-affirming statements made about one’s body, whereas negative body talk includes self-critical statements focused on dissatisfaction with one’s body fat and/or muscularity. The BTS can be administered online or in-person and is free to use. This chapter first discusses the development of the BTS and then provides evidence of its psychometrics. More specifically, the BTS has a 3-factor structure (negative fat talk, negative muscle talk, and positive body talk) found within exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and incremental validity support the use of the BTS. Next, this chapter provides the BTS items in their entirety, instructions for administration and scoring, and the item response scale. Links to known translations are included. Logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and contact information, are available for readers.

The 16-item Male Body Talk Scale (MBT scale; Sladek et al., 2014) assesses the frequency with which men engage in negatively valenced body-related conversations with others. The MBT scale can be administered online or in-person with adolescents and adults and is free to use in any setting. This chapter first discusses the development of the MBT scale and then provides evidence regarding the measure’s psychometric properties. Specifically, research using the MBT scale has found evidence for a correlated two-factor structure (e.g., “Muscle Talk,” “Fat Talk”) identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with samples including male-identifying young adult college students and adults (ages 18-65), along with scalar (i.e., strong) invariance across three ethnic groups (Asian, Latino, and White) of male-identifying college students. Internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity support the use of the MBT scale. Next, this chapter provides the MBT scale items, instructions for administering the measure to participants, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. The measure has been translated from English into Chinese (Mandarin) and administered with evidence of reliability and validity. Provided for readers also are logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and citation information.

The 5-item SNS Body Talk Scale (Wang, Wang, et al., 2020) is used to assess how often individuals talk about expectations for their bodies and for appearance enhancements with their friends on SNS. It can be administered online or in-person to adolescents and young adults and is free to use in any setting. This chapter first discusses the development of the SNS Body Talk Scale and then provides evidence of its psychometrics. More specifically, it has been found to have a single-factor structure within confirmatory factor analyses and is fully invariant across gender and age groups. Internal consistency reliability supports the use of the SNS Body Talk Scale. Next, this chapter provides the SNS Body Talk Scale items in their entirety, instructions for administering the scale to participants, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. Logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and contact information, are provided for readers.

The 14-item Body-Related Disclosure Scale (BRDS; Greer, Campione-Barr, & Lindell, 2015) can be administered in person or online to adolescents and young adults (ages 10-25 years) in the context of any close relationship (e.g., mother-child, father-child, siblings, friends, romantic partners) and is free to use in any setting. This chapter first discusses the development of the BRDS and then provides evidence of its psychometrics. More specifically, the Body-Related Disclosure Scale has been found to have a 2-factor structure within confirmatory factor analyses to include a positively-valence sub-scale and a negatively-valanced subscale. Internal consistency reliability supports the use of the BRDS. Next, this chapter provides the BRDS items in their entirety, instructions for administering the BRDS to participants, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. Logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and contact information, are provided for readers.

The 16-item Male Body Talk Scale (MBT scale; Sladek et al., 2014) assesses the frequency with which men engage in negatively valenced body-related conversations with others. The MBT scale can be administered online or in-person with adolescents and adults and is free to use in any setting. This chapter first discusses the development of the MBT scale and then provides evidence regarding the measure’s psychometric properties. Specifically, research using the MBT scale has found evidence for a correlated two-factor structure (e.g., “Muscle Talk,” “Fat Talk”) identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with samples including male-identifying young adult college students and adults (ages 18-65), along with scalar (i.e., strong) invariance across three ethnic groups (Asian, Latino, and White) of male-identifying college students. Internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity support the use of the MBT scale. Next, this chapter provides the MBT scale items, instructions for administering the measure to participants, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. The measure has been translated from English into Chinese (Mandarin) and administered with evidence of reliability and validity. Provided for readers also are logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and citation information.