The Role of Body Image and Self-Concept in Predicting Psychological Disorders among Blind and Deaf Students

This study aimed to investigate the role of body image and self-concept in predicting psychological disorders among blind and deaf students.
The study population of this causal-comparative study consisted of all blind and deaf students enrolled in secondary schools in Tehran, Iran, in the second half of 2013. One-hundred students (50 blind and 50 deaf) were selected by multistage random cluster sampling and completed questionnaires on body image and self-concept in addition to Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Results were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multivariate regression.
Results revealed that the two groups significantly differed in terms of mental health components, including depression, anxiety, and stress, together with body image and self-concept (p£0.05), with depression, anxiety, and stress being higher in blind students. Based on the results, the model significantly predicted psychological disorders from body image and self-concept in blind and deaf students (p£0/05), and 0.33 and 0.45 of the total variance of psychological disorders in blind and deaf students, respectively, were explained by body image and self-concept.
This study has implications for the use of body image and self-concept-based interventions to promote mental health in blind and deaf individuals.