Contributo alla validazione italiana del Physical Self-Description Questionnaire

Translated the Physical Self Description Questionnaire for the assessment of adolescent physical self-concept into Italian and analyzed its psychometric properties, factorial structure, reliability and gender factorial invariance. Participants were 755 13-17 yr olds. Factorial structure was examined with confirmatory procedures, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations were used to verify reliability, and various constrained models were compared to verify gender invariance. Results show that both the 11-oblique-factor structure and a good internal consistency of the questionnaire and its subscales were confirmed. The results supported the invariance of factor loadings across gender. Structural equation modeling supported a hierarchical structure among self perception elements. It is concluded that although the factors of the Italian version are somewhat less defined than those of the Australian version, on a global level the instrument has good validity and reliability, and confirms the factor structure and invariance across gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)