BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENT BODY SCHEME FOR THE ELDERLY

Abstract

The body schema (BS) involves the mental construction of the body, from the subjective aspects and the keen sense of location of each body segment. It is known that with advancing age of several components gradual biological, psychological and social factors that structure is change and restructure. The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the behavior of BS among individuals of different ages. We analyzed 146 individuals from 11 years to 75 years, stratified by age: Teens, Young Adults, Adults and Elderly. To analyze the BS procedure was applied to the BS Marking, a projective test from tactile stimulation of specific anatomical points and the end of the procedure, we calculated the body perception index (BPI). Individuals were classified according to BS, the 25th percentile and 75th percentile. Was used to analyze variance between groups and this difference was found between the categories of all groups (F = 215.757 and p <0.01). When stratifying the sample by age, it was observed that with increasing age the person begins to realize shorter than it actually is. Teen group there was a trend toward upper body estimation (30%), the Young Adult group, less body estimation (27%) during the stage Adult, upper body estimation (36%) and, finally, the group of elderly showed a high rate of people with, less body estimation (62%). These survey results indicate that with advancing age, the estimation of body dimensions become short of actual measurements.