The Correlation of the Female Physical Ideal on Self Esteem in Women with Physical Disability and Mobility Impairment in Lampang Province

Waluga Muentabutr¹, Tavee Cheausuwantavee², Penchan Sherer³

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Abstract

This study was mixed method with survey and in-depth interview and aimed to study the correlation between the effects of the female physical appearance ideal and self esteem in women with physical disability and mobility impairment in Lampang province. The sample size consisted of 374 women with physical disabilities and mobility impairments that had selected by simple random sampling. For the data collection, the researcher divided it into two parts- quantitative and qualitative method. The first part, questionnaires were used to collect the personal information, the level of self esteem and the level of the effects of the physical ideal towards females with disabilities and analysed by using the SPSS program to obtain the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Chi Square test, t-test and F-test or one-way ANOVA. For qualitative or in-depth interview, the researcher interviewed three women with physical disabilities. Verbatim data from key informants were analysed by analytic induction method.

The results revealed that overall the sample group had a medium-high self esteem level, which inversely related to the effects of the physical appearance ideal at a medium-low level. This means the women with disabilities and mobility impairment who had a low level of the effects of the physical appearance ideal tended to have higher self esteem, and vice versa. Regarding correlations between personal characteristics and self esteem as well as between personal characteristics and female physical appearance ideal, only age correlated with both the level of self esteem as well as the level of impact the female physical appearance ideal. Occupational level (employed or not employed) affected only the level or self esteem. The study also indicated that the most negative impact of the female physical appearance ideal in women with disabilities and mobility impairment were a loss of confidence in being a mother and/or a good housewife.

Keywords Woman, Feminist, Disability, Physical ideal, Image, Self esteem