TOUCH DEPRIVATION HAS AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON BODY-IMAGE - SOME PRELIMINARY-OBSERVATIONS

Body image in childhood initially develops in response to the empathic reflections of the mother or caregiver that are communicated mainly b y physical sensations such as touching, secure holding, or tactile nur turing. In a nonclinical sample of 173 shoppers, we observed an invers e correlation between perceived tactile nurturing during childhood and Drive for Thinness (Eating Disorder Inventory [EDI]; Pearson r = -.19 , p less than or equal to .05) and Body Dissatisfaction (EDI; Pearson r = -.23, p less than or equal to .05) among the females (n = 102). Fu rthermore, among the females there was a direct correlation (r = .29, p < .05) between a current desire to get more tactile nurturance and D rive for Thinness. Our empirical finding are consistent with the earli er developmental literature and support the importance of tactile nurt urance in the development of body image especially among females. (C) 1995 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.