The 13-item Negative Body Talk Scale (NBT scale; Engeln-Maddox et al., 2012) assesses women’s tendency to engage in negative, appearance-focused conversations about their body. The NBT scale can be administered online or in-person with adolescent and adult women and is free to use in any setting. This chapter first discusses the development of the NBT scale as well as the academic literature on the link between girls’ and women’s negative body talk and body satisfaction. Next, this chapter provides evidence of the psychometric properties of the NBT scale. Specifically, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses conducted with samples of young adult, undergraduate women suggest a correlated two-factor structure (body concerns and body comparisons) for scores on the scale. Analyses of NBT scores from a large sample of U.S. college women (ages 18-35) indicated scalar (i.e., strong) invariance across three ethnic groups (Asian, Latina, and White). Internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity support the use of the NBT scale. This chapter provides the NBT scale items, instructions for administering the measure to participants, the item response scale, and the scoring procedure. Logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and citation information, are also provided for readers.

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.