Revue Interdisciplinaire, Vol. 1, No 2 (2018)

Level of physical self-esteem and bodily appreciation among young people in Abidjan

Kouadio KJ, Kouassi KF, Yrobo YJ, Beugre JB

Résumé


The body of the individual would be inclined to regular changes. This variability of the physical dimensions of the individual seems to bring the latter to a regular appreciation of its physical volume. This systematic control of the body tends to be underpinned by the value that the individual attributes to the structuring of his body, that is, his physical self-esteem. The correlation between these two variables is far from being sufficiently studied. The goal of this paper is to examine the relationship between the level of physical self-esteem and body awareness. The study covers 185 Ivorian subjects aged 18 to 25, including 87 boys and 98 girls. The physical self-esteem and body awareness of these young people are measured using respectively the Toulousaine scale and the Lentillon-Kaestner et al. The results show that young people with a high level of physical self-esteem (weight: 59.94 ± 9.77 kg, height: 1.66 ± 0.06 m) and their counterparts in low physical self-esteem (weight: 62.23 ± 9.30 kg, stature: 1.67 ± 0.07 m) did not differ statistically in terms of acceptance (58.9% versus. 47.4%) or rejection (41.1% versus 52.6%) of their body. This non-significant difference between the two groups of young people is also observed, when comparing girls (weight: 59.59 ± 11.52 kg, height: 1.64 ± 0.06 m) to boys (weight: 62, 84 ± 6.39 kg, stature: 1.70 ± 0.06 m) of similar level of physical self-esteem regarding acceptance (46.9% vs. 59.8%) or not (53.1% against 40.2%) of the body profile. There is thus no close connection between the level of physical self-esteem and the bodily acceptance of young people. These results are specific in comparison with those obtained previously.