Assessing Explicit Weight Bias Among Australian Health Care Students: Suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA)

The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA) among Australian health care students. Specifically, we explored the factor structures of the two scales, their psychometric properties including internal consistency and convergent validity, and whether they were impacted by social desirability bias. Students studying health care courses at Australian universities (N = 900) responded to an online survey and completed the BAOP, AFA, 13-item Short Form Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS), Empathy for Obese Patients, and Confidence in Clinical Interaction With Obese Patients scales. Confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson’s correlations, and linear regressions were conducted to examine the factor structures of the BAOP and AFA, examine their convergent validity, and whether scores on these scales were associated with socially desirable responding. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the originally proposed factor structures of the BAOP (one factor) and AFA (three factors) and supported a relatively good model fit. Support for convergent validity of the two measures was shown when correlated with each other and the Empathy for Obese Patients and Confidence in Clinical Interaction With Obese Patients scales. The BAOP was not associated with socially desirable responding (p > .5). In contrast, all subscales of the AFA were associated with socially desirable responding (p < .5); as AFA scores increased, participants were less likely to respond in a socially desirable manner. The BAOP and AFA are considerably suitable measures to assess explicit weight bias among Australian health care students.