The Relationships between Body Cathexis and Clothing Satisfaction of Middle- and High-School Girls

여자 중.고교생의 신체만족도와 의복만족도의 관계연구

The purpose of the study was to investigate the body cathexis, ideal body shape, clothing satisfaction and their interrelationships. The subjects were 445 middle- and high- school girls. The findings were as follows : the subjects were more satisfied with their face appearance than body parts. They were very unsatisfied with thigh. leg and weight. Generally they were more satisfied with upper body than lower body, and more satisfied with length measurements than girth measurements. They accepted 169.19cm as ideal height and 49.18kg as ideal weight. The middle-school girls wanted to be taller than high-school girls by 3cm. But the ideal weight of both were almost same. The Rohrer indices indicated that the subjects were normal to slender type. But the Rohrer indices calculated using ideal height and ideal weight showed that the subjects thought extremely slender type as ideal body shape. The attitude of body was evaluated by two factors. the awareness of body shape and the physical attractiveness. The awareness of body shape was deeply influenced by girth measurements and lower body parts. And physical attractiveness was severely affected by face appearance. Weight was more important than height in regard to body cathexis. The ideal body shape was independent of individual situation but was formed by social value. The satisfaction of clothing in terms of design related aspects was influenced by body cathexis. Also the more satisfied with their body. the more they felt comfortable for their clothing. The body cathexis was interrelated with the satisfaction of clothing in some aspects.