Perceiving beauty in all women: Psychometric evaluation of the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale

• We examined the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS) with community women.
• The BCBS contains nine items which support a unidimensional factor structure.
• The BCBS was internally consistent and stable across a 3-week period.
• The BCBS evidenced construct and criterion-related validity.
• The BCBS represents a unique measure of positive body image.

Women's ability to broadly conceptualize beauty (i.e., perceive many looks, appearances, body sizes/shapes, and inner characteristics as beautiful) has been identified as a facet of positive body image in qualitative research. A scale is needed to be able to assess this construct within quantitative research. Therefore, we developed the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS), which measures the extent women define female beauty widely within external and internal characteristics, and examined its psychometric properties among four community samples totaling 1086 women. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a unidimensional structure with nine items. The internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and construct (convergent, discriminant, and incremental) validity of its scores were upheld. Researchers and clinicians can use the BCBS alone to assess women's perceptions of female beauty, or they can use the BCBS alongside women's perceptions of self-beauty to more comprehensively explore women's ability to broadly conceptualize beauty for others and themselves.