“Who does this body belong to?” The development and psychometric evaluation of the Body Experience during Pregnancy Scale

Anat Talmon*, Karni Ginzburg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Women's experiences of their bodies during pregnancy may reflect their reactions to concrete physical changes as well as self-representations during the transition to motherhood. However, adequate measures of the body experience during pregnancy are lacking. This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new measure, the Body Experience during Pregnancy Scale (BEPS). In Study 1, the BEPS was administered to 423 pregnant women. In Study 2, 373 pregnant women completed the BEPS, as well as questionnaires assessing body shame, disrupted body boundaries, and well-being. Three BEPS subscales emerged from Study 1: body agency, body estrangement, and body visibility. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis replicated the scale's structure. The factors were significantly correlated with measures of body shame, disrupted body boundaries, and well-being. The results of the present analyses suggest that the BEPS has good psychometric properties, making it useful in future research.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-28
Number of pages10
JournalBody Image
Volume26
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Body agency
  • Body estrangement
  • Body experience
  • Body image
  • Body visibility
  • Instrument development
  • Pregnancy

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