Development and validation of the Satisfaction With Appearance Scale: Assessing body image among burn-injured patients (original) (raw)

1998, Psychological Assessment

(SWAP) is a 14-item questionnaire, assessing both the subjective appraisal and social-behavioral components of body image among bum survivors. Burn survivors requiring hospitalization (n = 165} completed a packet of psychometric instruments, including the SWAP at 1-week postdischarge. The SWAP demonstrated a high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha, r. = .87; the mean interitem correlation, r,, = .32, the mean itemtotal correlation, rit = .53). Eighty-four participants were retested approximately 2 months after the initial assessment to evaluate test-retest reliability (rlt, = .59). A principal-components analysis with a varimax rotation yielded 4 easily interpretable factors accounting for 66% of the total variance. The correlations of die SWAP total score with other selected psychometric measures provided evidence for both convergent and discriminant validity. This initial evaluation of the SWAP suggests that it is both a reliable and valid measure of body image for a burn-injured population. Enduring a severe burn presents a burn survivor with numerous challenges, not the least of which is adjusting to scarring and related changes in his or her appearance (Patterson et al., 1993). To date, most research on the psychological effect of scarring and disfigurement following a severe bum injury has focused on the relationship between burn characteristics (e.g., size and location of burn), demographic characteristics of the burn survivors (e.g., sex and age), and subsequent emotional distress. For example, a number of researchers have emphasized the importance of the distinction between hidden (e.g., back, stomach) or visible (e.g., face) scars. Abdullah et al. (1994) found that children with visible scars from burn injuries reported more body-image disparagement than did children with hidden scars. Similarly, in adult populations, visible scarring has been shown to relate to decreased interaction with nonfamily members (Browne et al., 1985) and to increased withdrawal from activities that emphasize physical appearance (Andreasen & Norris, 1972). Other studies have suggested that alterations in