A naturalistic investigation of community adjustment of facially disfigured burned teenagers

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of facial disfigurement, resulting from severe burns, on the community adjustment of teenagers. The study was conducted within the theoretical framework of ecological psychology. A behavior setting survey was carried out, using daily records of the subjects' activities away from home, over a continuous 4-week period. The subjects served as their own data collectors; and the experimental subjects selected, according to a number of criteria (and subject to the approval of the investigator), their own control. The sample included a group of twenty-two facially disfigured burned teenagers, and a matched, nondisfigured control group. Similarities and differences were explored between the two groups along nine major descriptive variables. A factor analysis of the intercorrelations between various measures employed was conducted. The major findings were: (a) Comparisons were made separately for male and female subjects. Of the resulting 96 comparisons, 12 (12.5 %) yielded statistically significant differences, of these, 10 significant differences occurred among male subjects. In the light of these results, the common-sense assumption that attractive appearance would be more important to female teenagers must be questioned. (b) Disfigured males venture less, range less widely, and spend less time in certain types of settings, and disfigured males compensate by reentering the same settings more often and spending more time in them. (c) Facial Disfigurement appears to make less difference in the community participation of the female. (d) Results of the exploratory factor analysis suggest that several measures seem to be intercorrelated. Specifically, the number of different settings entered seem to be positively correlated with the number of entries into settings and the number of varieties formed by settings entered, and negatively correlated with the number of entries per setting and amount of time per setting.