Objective: To evaluate the semantic and measure equivalence of the body image sub-scale of the Offer Self Image Questionnaire (OSIQ).
Methods: Participants were 386 teenagers, 10 to 18 years old, both sexes, enrolled in a private school (junior and high school age). Translation, back-translation, technique revision and evaluation were conducted. The Portuguese instrument was evaluated for internal consistency, discriminate and concurrent validity.
Results: Internal consistency showed values from 0.43 to 0.54 and was able to discriminate all groups studied--the whole population, boys and girls, and boys in early adolescence, by nutritional status (p<0.001; p<0.009; p=0.030; p=0.043, respectively). Concurrent analyses showed significant correlation with anthropometric measures only for girls (r=-0.16 and p=0.021; r=-0.19 and p=0.007), early adolescence (r=-0.23 and p=0.008; r=-0.26 and p=0.003) and intermediate adolescence (r=-0.29 and p=0.010) and the retest confirmed reliability by the coefficient of interclass correlation. Although the instrument has proven its ability to discriminate between the groups studied by nutritional state, other results were less satisfactory. More studies are necessary for full transcultural adaptation, including the application of other comparative scales.
Conclusion: The body image sub-scale of the OSIQ was translated, but the results are not promising and require more studies.