Children's perceptions and facial disfigurement
Children's perceptions and facial disfigurement
A detailed review of the literature on attractiveness and disfigurement revealed how people appraise attractive and unattractive others. It was noted that attractive people overall enjoyed better quality of life than unattractive people. Many theoretical perspectives, models and frameworks have been put forward to explain why this happens and its implications on people who may have a visible disfigurement. However, research undertaken in the area of disfigurement appears to be somewhat weak. Most studies have concentrated on specific causes of disfigurement such as cleft lip or burns etc. Most studies have used clinical population and studies on children are rare. Therefore, a study was designed to use children from the non-clinical population to assess their perception of disfigurement caused by common skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis, port wine stain etc. The study investigated the effect of age and gender on skin condition. Sixty school children, 30 girls and 30 boys participated in the study. They were all shown 12 photographs of children with and without a skin disorder. Their responses were then analysed statistically using ANOVA. Harter’s self perception profile questionnaire was also used in the study to evaluate the effect of participants’ global self-worth (gsw) on their responses. The results indicated that there was a significant condition effect and all participants rated favourably for children without skin condition. The effect of age and gender was not found to be significant and participants’ gsw scores were in the normal range and had no bearing on their responses. However, it was concluded that studies are required to assess changes in the perception of children regarding skin disorders as they develop so they fully understand the impact of skin disorders on the sufferer. This may be the first step in reducing the stigma of disfigurement.
University of Southampton
Gaba, Mahwash A
80cc7755-ddf3-4235-95e6-a983c4eba216
2005
Gaba, Mahwash A
80cc7755-ddf3-4235-95e6-a983c4eba216
Gaba, Mahwash A
(2005)
Children's perceptions and facial disfigurement.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
A detailed review of the literature on attractiveness and disfigurement revealed how people appraise attractive and unattractive others. It was noted that attractive people overall enjoyed better quality of life than unattractive people. Many theoretical perspectives, models and frameworks have been put forward to explain why this happens and its implications on people who may have a visible disfigurement. However, research undertaken in the area of disfigurement appears to be somewhat weak. Most studies have concentrated on specific causes of disfigurement such as cleft lip or burns etc. Most studies have used clinical population and studies on children are rare. Therefore, a study was designed to use children from the non-clinical population to assess their perception of disfigurement caused by common skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis, port wine stain etc. The study investigated the effect of age and gender on skin condition. Sixty school children, 30 girls and 30 boys participated in the study. They were all shown 12 photographs of children with and without a skin disorder. Their responses were then analysed statistically using ANOVA. Harter’s self perception profile questionnaire was also used in the study to evaluate the effect of participants’ global self-worth (gsw) on their responses. The results indicated that there was a significant condition effect and all participants rated favourably for children without skin condition. The effect of age and gender was not found to be significant and participants’ gsw scores were in the normal range and had no bearing on their responses. However, it was concluded that studies are required to assess changes in the perception of children regarding skin disorders as they develop so they fully understand the impact of skin disorders on the sufferer. This may be the first step in reducing the stigma of disfigurement.
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Published date: 2005
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Local EPrints ID: 467120
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/467120
PURE UUID: 83506b32-969d-4c21-9710-170f6c3e9db6
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 08:12
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 20:59
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Author:
Mahwash A Gaba
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