Sara Ribeiro de Faria, Sandra Torres
Body image concerns have a significant impact on important domains of life, including academic, occupational, and social functioning. The Body Image Life Disengagement Questionnaire (BILD-Q; Atkinson & Diedrichs, 2021) was designed to assess the impact of body image concerns on the daily lives of adolescents. To support its cross-cultural use, we examined the factor structure and the psychometric properties of a Portuguese adaptation of the BILD-Q. Participants (N = 727) were adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years old. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis validated the unidimensional factor structure of the measure. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the scale was invariant across gender, and internal consistency was supported. Further analyses provided evidence of convergent validity through positive associations with body dissatisfaction, internalization of thin ideals, and pressures from media, family, and peers, as well as negative associations with self-esteem and quality of life. Additionally, concurrent incremental validity was also demonstrated, with BILD-Q scores explaining significant unique variance in self-esteem. The findings support the BILD-Q as a valid tool for assessing body image-related life disengagement among Portuguese adolescents.