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Objectified Body Consciousness Scale: Youth

The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale for Youth (OBC-Youth) is a 14-item measure of the degree to which children and youth perceive their bodies as objects to be observed and judged by others. The scale includes three sub-scales: body surveillance, body shame, and appearance control beliefs. The OBC-Youth is derived from the OBC-Classic which can be found here: https://emerge.ucsd.edu/r_1lfoboc6mxxrgv4/.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female

Age Range: Adolescents, Adults, Children

Items:

Surveillance
1. I often compare how I look with how other people look.
2. During the day, I think about how I look many times.
3. I often worry about whether the clothes I am wearing make me look good.
4. I often worry about how I look to other people.

Body Shame
5. I feel ashamed of myself when I haven’t made an effort to look my best.
6. I feel like I must be a bad person when I don’t look as good as I could.
7. I would be ashamed for people to know what I really weigh.
8. When I’m not exercising enough, I question whether I am a good person.
9. When I’m not the size I think I should be, I feel ashamed.

Control Beliefs
10. I think I am pretty much stuck with the looks I was born with.*
11. I think I could look as good as I wanted to if I worked at it.
12. I really don’t think I have much control over how my body looks.*
13. I think my weight is mostly determined by the genes I was born with.*
14. I can weigh what I’m supposed to if I try hard enough.
*Items are reverse scored

Response Options:
Strongly disagree - 1
Strongly agree - 7

Scoring Procedures

Items are summed to create a scale. Higher scores indicate higher objectified body consciousness.

Original Citation

Lindberg, S. M., Hyde, J. S., & McKinley, N. M. (2006). A measure of objectified body consciousness for preadolescent and adolescent youth. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00263.x


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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