PERCEIVED SOMATOTYPE AS INDICATOR OF ACCURACY OF BODY-IMAGE, A METHODUSING SOMATOTYPE ATTITUDINAL DISTANCE

A method intended to assess accuracy of body image was applied to 52 C aucasian girls aged 14 and 15 years. Each girl, after being somatotype d by the Heath-Carter anthropometric method, was asked to select, amon g ten somatotype standard photographs, the one she perceived closest t o her own objective somatotype. The purposes of the research were (i) to measure the distance between the objective and subjective judgement s, self-perceived somatotypes by means of the somatotype attitudinal d istance, and (ii) to assess the stability of the subjective somatotype by a test-retest correlation. The girls were also asked to select the pictures corresponding to the most preferred and aversive somatotypes . The test-retest coefficients were significant for the three somatoty pe choices. Hence, the method provides adequate stability and may be e mployed to reproduce the discrepancies between body image and real bod y build by a quantitative continuous measure.