Confirmatory factor analysis of different versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire applied to Brazilian university students

• This study performed a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the validity of the BSQ in a Brazilian sample.
• The validity of the 34-item, and the 8- and 16-item shortened versions of the BSQ was assessed.
• All the shortened versions of the BSQ analyzed indicated adequate convergent validity and reliability in the sample.
• The 8-item B version of the BSQ was considered the best BSQ version when applied to Brazilian university students.

This study aimed at evaluating the validity, reliability, and factorial invariance of the complete (34-item) and shortened (8-item and 16-item) versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) when applied to Brazilian university students. A total of 739 female students with a mean age of 20.44 (standard deviation = 2.45) years participated. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify the degree to which the one-factor structure satisfies the proposal for the BSQ's expected structure. Two items of the 34-item version were excluded because they had factor weights (λ) < 40. All models had adequate convergent validity (average variance extracted = .43–.58; composite reliability = .85–.97) and internal consistency (α = .85–.97). The 8-item B version was considered the best shortened BSQ version (Akaike information criterion = 84.07, Bayes information criterion = 157.75, Browne–Cudeck criterion = 84.46), with strong invariance for independent samples (Δχ2λ(7) = 5.06, Δχ2Cov(8) = 5.11, Δχ2Res(16) = 19.30).