The influence of physical activity on body image in people with and without acquired mobility disability

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Body image in people with physical disability is important, but it has received little attention in the research literature.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine whether diff erences exist between adolescents with acquired mobility disability (AMD) and those without AMD regarding body image, and whether physical activity infl uences these diff erences.METHODS: Fifty-eight adolescents, aged 16 to 18 years, participated in this study. Half the participants had some form of AMD while the other half were healthy. Body image was evaluated with the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) before and after 6 weeks of playing darts. A two way ANOVA was used to analyse the results.RESULTS: At the end of the study, the healthy adolescents scored signifi cantly higher than the AMD group on the subscales of fi tness perception, orientation and overall health perception. No interaction was found between disability and exercise on any subscales of the MBSRQ. CONCLUSIONS:The results of this study demonstrate that people with AMD evaluate their health and fi tness levels as being lower than healthy adolescents and that they are less concerned with fi tness as compared with healthy adolescents. Six weeks of playing darts as a physical activity had no eff ect on improving the self perceptions of the AMD group.

A systematic review of disability’s treatment in the active school travel and children’s independent mobility literatures

“…16. For example, phenomenology (Palisano et al, 2009), Morris' (2009) capability approach (Porcelli et al, 2014), psychological/identity studies (Gürsel & Koruç, 2011), grounded theory/interaction (Skär & Tamm, 2001), and an ecological approach (Ahl et al, 2005). 17.…”

“…Various studies have considered children's perspectives in order to use their input to evaluate health-and travel-related programmes/interventions (Anaby et al, 2014;Falkmer et al, 2014;Østensjø et al, 2005; see also Alriksson-Schmidt et al, 2006;Gürsel & Koruç, 2011;Van Wely et al, 2014). In other studies, children's perspectives were considered to explore and describe their experiences of mobility and transportation (see Palisano et al, 2009;Porcelli et al, 2014;Wiart et al, 2003), relationships (Skär & Tamm, 2001), and quality of life (Einarsson et al, 2015;Jemta, Dahl, Fugl-Meyer, & Stensman, 2005;Jemta, Fugl-Meyer, Oberg, & Dahl, 2009).…”

Explorando la percepción de imagen corporal en personas con discapacidad intelectual: un estudio cualitativo

“…Numerous studies have assessed body dissatisfaction in children, adolescents, and adults (Berengüí et al, 2016;Contento et al, 2003;León et al, 2018;Tremblay et al, 2011), as well as in people with physical disabilities (Gürsel & Koruç, 2011;Moin et al, 2009;Pan et al, 2018). Nevertheless, research on body image in people with intellectual disability (ID) is scarce and their study has been identified as a need in the field (Bucciere & Reel, 2009;Cash & Smolak, 2011;Eden & Randle-Phillips, 2017).…”

“…Despite this need, body image has been studied in people with autism spectrum condition (Longhurst, 2023). Research conducted in people with physical disability has found that disability has negative influence on this population's self-perceived body image (Gürsel & Koruç, 2011;Moin et al, 2009;Pan et al, 2018;Pfaffenberger et al, 2011), despite other study showed results about body image in a sample of men with spinal cord injury similar of general population (Bassett & Martin, 2009). Studies on body image involving people with ID suggested that women with ID usually present more negative body perception than men with ID (Bégarie et al, 2011;Maïano et al, 2016;Reel et al, 2013) and stronger tendency to express their wish for thinness (Bucciere et al, 2011).…”