The Polish adaptation of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance SATAQ 3 Questionnaire

Background The importance of mass media (such as radio, television, various magazines, commercials and the Internet) among socio-cultural factors is emphasized and considered as a predictor explaining the preferred and even dictated standard of beauty and attractiveness of the body in the global culture. The SATAQ 3 is a tool designed to measure socio-cultural risk factors of body image disturbance. The purpose of this article is to present the results of many years of research, which was aimed at collecting, analysing and presenting the Polish adapta-tion and normalization of the SATAQ 3. Participants and procedure The Polish version of the SATAQ 3 questionnaire used for the research contained 30 items, whose content was identical to the original version of SATAQ 3. The standardization sample consisted of 1505 respondents: wom-en (n = 1044) and men (n = 461) aged 12 to 64 (M = 23.65, SD = 8.57). Results The four factors obtained in the Polish version of the SATAQ 3 questionnaire were named differently than in the English version of the tool. The Internalization-Pressure scale consists of 12 items and the Internalization-Information Seeking scale consists of 6 items, whereas the Internalization-Athlete scale consists of 4 items and the Information scale consists of 6 items. Conclusions The present study has shown that SATAQ 3 is a tool with satisfactory statistical reliability. It confirms the useful-ness of the tool in both scientific research and screening of adolescents and adults (men and women) in the direction of isolating socio-cultural risk factors of body image disorders and predictors of unhealthy behaviours towards the body and the nutrition.