Potentiel Physique et Auto-évaluation Corporelle Chez des Jeunes Étudiants à Abidjan

Abstract

The body of the young man seems to be characterized by a specific plasticity. This chrono-individual body modification oftentimes leads the young person to evaluate his own body according to body acquisitions. The relationship between these two variables is far from being sufficiently studied. This paper focuses on examining the self-evaluation of the body according to the physical potential. It covers 181 young people between the ages of 18 and 25, including 84 boys and 97 girls. Body self-judgment of the subjects was measured with a specific scale. In this case, it was measured by the study of Lentillon-Kaestner et al. The physical potential of young people was explored by considering weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI) and Fat Mass Index (FMI) of the latter. The physical parameters were measured using the scales (weight) and the height gauge (stature). As for the body composition indices, they were calculated from the physical parameters previously indicated. The results obtained, after the comparisons of the subjects with each other, show that young people aged 18-21 years of physical threshold potential exhibit statistically high body self-acceptance frequency to that of their subthreshold potential counterparts and suprathreshold physical potential. Similar results were observed in young people between 22 and 25 years of age. In this group, those with a threshold of physical potential were more acceptable compared to their peers of subthreshold physical potential and supraliminal physical potential. Taking into account sex, girls aged 18 to 21 with a threshold physical potential do not differ from their peers with subthreshold physical potential and suprathreshold physical potential in terms of low body self-acceptance. The results are identical for men aged 18 to 21 and 22 to 25. The meaning of the results does not change when comparing girls with subthreshold physical potential to boys of identical physical potential.The observations made at the latter were repeated when comparing girls to boys of physical threshold potential. In girls aged 22 to 25, girls with subthreshold physical potential and suprathreshold or threshold were superimposed on their male counterparts of subthreshold physical potential and suprathreshold or threshold. This, however, is in regards to the frequency of body self-acceptance. In this sense, the physical potential of the young would not influence the bodily self-evaluation of the latter when the sex intervenes. On the other hand, considering all young people, their physical density varies based on their body self-evaluation.