Approbation of the Non-Verbal Technique for Assessment of the Satisfaction with Body Parts

A new assessment tool is proposed for measuring the attitude to individual parts of one's body, applicable to persons with physical disabilities. The forms for testing contain schematic images of the man figure and person's face, on which the sections are marked out. It is necessary to put a specific rating on a 5-point scale in the each segment of body and face. Approbation was carried out in adolescents 11-18 years old with typical development (ATD, 103 people) and with motor disabilities and IQ within normal range (AMD, 31 people). Specific and averaged assessments of the face, body, limbs, etc. were obtained. Psychometric analysis showed that the adolescents of both groups basically assess their body with points 4 and 5. In both groups, there are about 9% of respondents with low ratings (below 3.5). There are significant sex differences in the estimates of certain parts of the body. The ANOVA reveals reliable effects of interaction of the factors of sex, age and the presence of disorders in comparison of the ATD and AMD groups. In particular, the lowest scores are typical for girls 11-14 years of the AMD group. The validity of the proposed technique is indicated by regular correlations with other body image estimates, self-esteem and neuroticism. The proposed diagnostic tool can be recommended for research purposes in work with adolescents and adults with physical appearance defects.