From Where Does Young Peoples' Sense of Self-worth Come?

By Brian Smith

Beverley J. Antle - an academic and resarcher at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto - recently sent me over a piece of her research that pertains directly to our initiative - Factors Associatied with Self-worth in Young People with Physical Disabilities.

The study looked for the reasons behind young peoples' sense of self-worth. As we know, one's sense of self-worth carries over to many other facets of our lives. The young subjects were between the ages of 8 and 23 and included an even mix of kids who'd either been born with Spina Bifida or had acquired a spinal cord injury later in their short lives.

The findings of this research... continue to shore our beliefs - we need our social networks, we need our friends, we need our families.

No significant relationship was shown betwen self-worth and gender, nor between self-worth and the severity of their disability. Similarly, there was no evidence of a correlation between their self-worth and whether they were born with or acquired the disability later in life.

However - and this is where it becomes interesting - there was significant evidence between the age of the person and their sense of self-worth. That is, "...young people born with physical disabilities do not have a negative sense of self until they are older and able to perceive and internalize stigma."

The other signifcant result was a positive correlation between young peoples' perceptions of social support from close friends and family and their sense of self-worth.

The author's conclusion includes:

"Although many people with physical disabilities have a positive sense of self, public perceptions of disability continue to be fraught with images of pain, loss, and isolation. In a social model of disability, difficulties experienced by individuals with physical disabilities are rooted in social structures rather than physical differences... Thus, although many people with physical disabilities have a positive view of themselves, they are likely to need strategies to protect their sense of self from the negative images held by the public."