Navigating body image flexibility: Psy-Flex scale for body image and its utility in differentiating severity levels of disordered eating and body dysmorphia symptomatology

Body image flexibility concerns the willingness to tolerate undesirable body-related experiences, while remaining committed to valued goals and actions, and plays an important role in the development and maintenance of the body and eating-related disorders. However, the known limitations of current assessment measures represent a major barrier to the adequate study of this construct. Recently, a novel brief psychological flexibility measure was successfully developed (Psy-Flex). The present study aimed to adapt and validate the Psy-Flex for Body Image (Psy-Flex-BI) and to explore its psychometric properties. Additionally, we aimed to support this scale as an important tool in the fields of disordered eating and body dysmorphia, by testing its ability to differentiate the severity levels of these symptoms in the general population. The study comprised 1031 participants who completed online questionnaires. The Psy-Flex-BI (6 items) was successfully adapted, and the one-dimensional factorial structure of the scale was confirmed. The scale presented robust psychometric properties, including a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89, and was invariant across sex. It also correlated in expected directions and strengths with similar constructs and maladaptive psychological indicators. Finally, Psy-flex-BI scores successfully corresponded to distinctive disordered eating and body dysmorphia symptomatology severity levels, presenting two distinct patterns supported by the literature. This data supports the scale's screening potential. Indeed, the Psy-Flex-BI is a brief and sound measure of body image flexibility, encompassing the six core ACT dimensions, and can differentiate the severity of eating and body dysmorphia symptoms in the general population.