The Sociocultural Internalization of Appearance Questionnaire – Adolescents (SIAQ-A): Psychometric and Normative Data for Three Countries

A brief measure of internalization of societal norms regarding appearance was developed and validated on six early adolescent female samples (mean ages 11.7–13.3) from three countries (US, Australia, India; total n=2210). Internal consistency levels were uniformly high in all samples, ranging from 0.83 to 0.92. Convergent validity estimates were high in all samples. Level of internalization was significantly positively correlated with levels of body dissatisfaction and restriction for all samples. Internalization was also significantly positively correlated with bulimic behaviors and negatively correlated with levels of self-esteem for the four samples that included these variables. The findings indicate that the Sociocultural Internalization of Appearance Questionnaire — Adolescents (SIAQ-A) may be used to further explore a media influence cross-culturally, allowing for the investigation of the role of internalization as a potential risk factor for body image problems and eating disturbances in different contexts