Introduction: Short stature and other growth disorders may be a subject of public stigmatising and that, especially during puberty, may lead to lowered self-esteem and increase inadequate self-perception of one's body image.
The aim of the study: To assess own body perception in short- and normally statured girls and to evaluate the concordance of self-image with an assessment performed by an external expert.
Material and methods: Two groups of girls aged 14-16 years took part in the study: 25 short-statured girls (body height below 10th percentile) and 49 girls of normal body height. The subjects were given templates with 9 body silhouettes. They were asked to point out the silhouette that best represented their body and then the desired one. The third evaluation was performed by an external expert. Basing on the expert's assessment, the subjects were divided into three groups: slim (silhouettes 1 and 2), normal (3-4) and stocky (above 4).
Results: Regression slopes computed for the relationship between self-image and expert's assessment differed significantly in both groups: slim, short-statured girls overestimated their body image by about 1.5 unit while the stocky, short-statured ones by about one unit. Girls with normal body height overestimated their body image by about one unit irrespectively of the group they have been classified to. Additionally, stocky girls and those with normal body image from both groups wished to be leaner.
Conclusions: Incompletely developed sense of identity as well as rapid changes in body composition and body proportions can be attributed to pubescence and may be the reason of inadequate perception of own body image. Additionally, self-image may be strongly affected by the beauty standards widely promoted by mass-media.