The present study developed a Brazilian adaptation of the BAS for young adolescents, testing its factor structure by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), concurrent and criterion validity, and its internal consistency. Participants were 347 adolescents (171 male and 176 female, aged between 10 and 13 years old). Three psychologists experts in psychological evaluation and three teachers of Portuguese of elementary school also participated for the adaptation stage of the items in order to be properly understood by the sample age group. There were few changes from the version culturally adapted for the Brazilian adult population. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were satisfactory for the general population and both sexes (.804; female =.851; male =.752). The one-factor model of the BAS was confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis with good indicators for the measurements of adjustment to the model, χ2 = 77.9; GFI = 0.967; NFI = 0.940, CFI = 0.979; TLI = 0.968; RMSEA;.038). The convergent validity analyzes revealed significant correlations between BAS scores and BMI (r = -.230; p < .001) and between the first and body image satisfaction (r = .309; p < .001). The BAS version for Brazilian young adolescents had adequate levels of validity and reliability, keeping the one-dimensional structure which indicates its use in Brazilian adolescent's samples.
Keywords: adolescents; body appreciation; body image; construct validation; psychometrics.