Body talk and body dissatisfaction in Japanese university students: Longitudinal study using the Japanese Body Talk Scale

Abstract

This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Body Talk Scale (BTS), designed to measure negative fat talk, negative muscle talk, and positive body talk. The study also explored the longitudinal associations between each body talk category and body dissatisfaction. We conducted two separate studies among university students in Japan. Separate confirmatory factor analyses for female and male data indicated that the initially proposed three-factor model demonstrated an acceptable fit, whereas the bi-factor model provided a better fit. The Japanese BTS showed good construct validity, acceptable to adequate internal consistency, and test-retest reliability within 2 weeks. A four-week longitudinal study involving 386 women and 216 men (mean age = 19.22 and 19.62, respectively) revealed that negative fat talk predicted an increase in the discrepancy between the thin ideal body image and the actual body image among women. In contrast, positive body talk was linked to reduced body dissatisfaction and body image discrepancy in women. There were no such significant associations in men. These findings support the use of the Japanese BTS as a valuable instrument for future research on the intrapersonal and interpersonal effects of various types of body talk.