A percepção de imagem corporal de pessoas com deficiência física

Abstract

In order to check the acquired handicapped people’s perception about their body figures, five (5) people of both genders, males and females from twenty (20) to thirty-five (35) years of age, participants of programs of physical activities of a university in Rio Grande do Sul state, took part in this study. Five (5) instruments were applied so that the data could be collected: Form of Demographic data, Script of the interview about deficiency and the practice of physical activities, Test: “My own body image”, adapted from Lovo (2001), Graphic of symptoms of Penna (1990) and the script of their body images before having their deficiencies. The following result were presented: their body images, before and after being physically handicapped, have changed, that is, it is understood that there have been conflicts towards the acceptance of the fact that they now have deficiencies in certain parts of their bodies and this condition interferes in the way they look at themselves nowadays; in this group of people studied here, this kind of acquired deficiency did not interfere in their body images; it has been noticed that most participants practiced physical activities before becoming handicapped and, because of that, this practice did not change their body images but helped in re-building and in maintaining their images.