Checking the scales: A psychometric evaluation of the Weight Concerns Scale in a sample of college-aged cisgender men from the United States.

What is it about?

The Weight Concerns Scale (WCS) is a common measure that was traditionally developed for use with adolescent girls, and little is known about is appropriateness with cisgender men. However, the WCS is commonly used with cisgender men. In our study, we used statistical methods to evaluate if it is appropriate to use WCS with cisgender men.

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Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Accurate and meaningful measurement is important to inform clinical decisions. Our results indicate that two of the five WCS items differ on what is being measured between cisgender men and women and that the WCS is deferentially related to other measures for male and female respondents. As such, the WCS does not appear to be appropriate to use with cisgender men without modification.